| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay: emotional inflammation, as though a very slight external cause would
serve to overturn his self-control. Corpang stood silent with a
mouth like iron.
Maskull kept looking toward a high pile of rocks in the vicinity.
"That seems to me a good watchtower. Perhaps we shall see something
from the top."
Without waiting for his companion's opinion, he began to scramble up
the tor, and in a few minutes was standing on the summit. Corpang
joined him.
From their viewpoint they saw the whole countryside sloping down to
the sea, which appeared as a mere flash of far-off, glittering water.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from An Old Maid by Honore de Balzac: then he rose, took his cap, and went off to the mayor's office, saying
to himself, "Can my mother suspect my secret?"
He passed through the rue du Val-Noble, where Mademoiselle Cormon
lived,--a little pleasure which he gave himself every morning,
thinking, as usual, a variety of fanciful things:--
"How little she knows that a young man is passing before her house who
loves her well, who would be faithful to her, who would never cause
her any grief; who would leave her the entire management of her
fortune without interference. Good God! what fatality! here, side by
side, in the same town, are two persons in our mutual condition, and
yet nothing can bring them together. Suppose I were to speak to her
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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 Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte: "A good man. Does that mean a respectable well-conducted man of
fifty? Or what does it mean?"
"St John was only twenty-nine, sir."
"'Jeune encore,' as the French say. Is he a person of low stature,
phlegmatic, and plain. A person whose goodness consists rather in
his guiltlessness of vice, than in his prowess in virtue."
"He is untiringly active. Great and exalted deeds are what he lives
to perform."
"But his brain? That is probably rather soft? He means well: but
you shrug your shoulders to hear him talk?"
"He talks little, sir: what he does say is ever to the point. His
Jane Eyre |
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 Menexenus by Plato: brought back, barbarian against Hellenes, and all the hosts, both of
Hellenes and barbarians, were united against Athens. And then shone forth
the power and valour of our city. Her enemies had supposed that she was
exhausted by the war, and our ships were blockaded at Mitylene. But the
citizens themselves embarked, and came to the rescue with sixty other
ships, and their valour was confessed of all men, for they conquered their
enemies and delivered their friends. And yet by some evil fortune they
were left to perish at sea, and therefore are not interred here. Ever to
be remembered and honoured are they, for by their valour not only that sea-
fight was won for us, but the entire war was decided by them, and through
them the city gained the reputation of being invincible, even though
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