| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: My master, finding how profitable I was likely to be, resolved to
carry me to the most considerable cities of the kingdom. Having
therefore provided himself with all things necessary for a long
journey, and settled his affairs at home, he took leave of his
wife, and upon the 17th of August, 1703, about two months after
my arrival, we set out for the metropolis, situate near the
middle of that empire, and about three thousand miles distance
from our house. My master made his daughter Glumdalclitch ride
behind him. She carried me on her lap, in a box tied about her
waist. The girl had lined it on all sides with the softest cloth
she could get, well quilted underneath, furnished it with her
Gulliver's Travels |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton: his folded arms. Granice passed out into the street. At the
corner of Fifth Avenue he hailed a crawling cab, and called out
an up-town address. The long thoroughfare stretched before him,
dim and deserted, like an ancient avenue of tombs. But from
Denver's house a friendly beam fell on the pavement; and as
Granice sprang from his cab the editor's electric turned the
corner.
The two men grasped hands, and Denver, feeling for his latch-key,
ushered Granice into the brightly-lit hall.
"Disturb me? Not a bit. You might have, at ten to-morrow
morning . . . but this is my liveliest hour . . . you know my
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe: help, and even for sustenance, out at their windows in a most
miserable and deplorable manner; but it must be added that whenever
the cases of such persons or families were represented to my Lord
Mayor they always were relieved.
It is true, in some houses where the people were not very poor, yet
where they had sent perhaps their wives and children away, and if
they had any servants they had been dismissed; - I say it is true that to
save the expenses, many such as these shut themselves in, and not
having help, died alone.
A neighbour and acquaintance of mine, having some money owing
to him from a shopkeeper in Whitecross Street or thereabouts, sent his
A Journal of the Plague Year |
The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from Agesilaus by Xenophon: strength, while as near as could be the cavalry on either side was
numerically the same. Agesilaus held the right of his own army, and on
his extreme left lay the men of Orchomenus. On the opposite side the
Thebans themselves formed their own right and the Argives held their
left. While the two armies approached a deep silence prevailed on
either side, but when they were now a single furlong's[7] space apart
the Thebans quickened to a run, and, with a loud hurrah, dashed
forward to close quarters. And now there was barely a hundred yards[8]
between them, when Herippidas, with his foreign brigade, rushed
forward from the Spartan's battle lines to meet them. This brigade
consisted partly of troops which had served with Agesilaus ever since
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