| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving: any material effect on the relative situations of the contending
powers. On a fine autumnal afternoon, Ichabod, in pensive mood,
sat enthroned on the lofty stool from whence he usually watched
all the concerns of his little literary realm. In his hand he
swayed a ferule, that sceptre of despotic power; the birch of
justice reposed on three nails behind the throne, a constant
terror to evil doers, while on the desk before him might be seen
sundry contraband articles and prohibited weapons, detected upon
the persons of idle urchins, such as half-munched apples,
popguns, whirligigs, fly-cages, and whole legions of rampant
little paper game-cocks. Apparently there had been some appalling
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy: be to play with!" In return for the gold they gave their
services and brought the "nobleman" the produce of their farms.
The old devil was overjoyed as he thought, "Now my enterprise is
on a fair road and I will be able to ruin the Fool--as I did his
brothers."
The fools obtained sufficient gold to distribute among the entire
community, the women and young girls of the village wearing much
of it as ornaments, while to the children they gave some pieces
to play with on the streets.
When they had secured all they wanted they stopped working and
the "noblemen" did not get his house more than half finished. He
The Kreutzer Sonata |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Outlaw of Torn by Edgar Rice Burroughs: them, but instead he had fastened there three im-
portant citizens of London, old men and influential,
who had opposed him, and aided and abetted the King.
So great was the wrath of Prince Richard, King of
the Romans, that he fell upon the baronial troops
with renewed vigor, and slowly but steadily beat them
back from the town.
This sight, together with the routing of the enemy's
left wing by Prince Edward, so cheered and inspired
the royalists that the two remaining divisions took up
the attack with refreshed spirits so that what a moment
The Outlaw of Torn |
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 Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin by Robert Louis Stevenson: At last the captain decided things had gone too far. He himself
apparently remained to watch over the linen; but at five o'clock on
the Sunday morning, Aunt Anna, Fleeming, and his mother were rowed
in a pour of rain on board an English merchantman, to suffer 'nine
mortal hours of agonising suspense.' With the end of that time,
peace was restored. On Tuesday morning officers with white flags
appeared on the bastions; then, regiment by regiment, the troops
marched in, two hundred men sleeping on the ground floor of the
Jenkins' house, thirty thousand in all entering the city, but
without disturbance, old La Marmora being a commander of a Roman
sternness.
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