| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Persuasion by Jane Austen: if they were all Sophys, or something of that sort. Well,
this Miss Louisa, we all thought, you know, was to marry Frederick.
He was courting her week after week. The only wonder was,
what they could be waiting for, till the business at Lyme came;
then, indeed, it was clear enough that they must wait till her brain
was set to right. But even then there was something odd in their
way of going on. Instead of staying at Lyme, he went off to Plymouth,
and then he went off to see Edward. When we came back from Minehead
he was gone down to Edward's, and there he has been ever since.
We have seen nothing of him since November. Even Sophy could
not understand it. But now, the matter has take the strangest turn of all;
Persuasion |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The United States Constitution: States shall be necessary to a Choice. In every Case, after the Choice
of the President, the Person having the greatest Number of Votes of
the Electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should remain
two or more who have equal Votes, the Senate shall chuse from them
by Ballot the Vice President.
The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors,
and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day
shall be the same throughout the United States.
No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States,
at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to
the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that
The United States Constitution |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac: "Let us go and console him, mamma; if any one knocks, we can come
down."
Madame Grandet was helpless against the sweet persuasive tones of her
daughter's voice. Eugenie was sublime: she had become a woman. The
two, with beating hearts, went up to Charles's room. The door was
open. The young man heard and saw nothing; plunged in grief, he only
uttered inarticulate cries.
"How he loves his father!" said Eugenie in a low voice.
In the utterance of those words it was impossible to mistake the hopes
of a heart that, unknown to itself, had suddenly become passionate.
Madame Grandet cast a mother's look upon her daughter, and then
Eugenie Grandet |
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 Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: glinted in his watery eye. He crossed and uncrossed his legs with
solemnity, and blew his nose so frequently in a huge red silk
handkerchief that it seemed like a signal of danger. At last he
unburdened himself of his hesitations.
"Ah'm not saying that the young man will not be orthodox--ahem!
But ye know, sir, in the Kirk, we are not using hymns, but just the
pure Psawms of Daffit, in the meetrical fairsion. And ye know,
sir, they are ferry tifficult in the reating, whatefer, for a young
man, and one that iss a stranger. And if his father will just be
coming with him in the pulpit, to see that nothing iss said amiss,
that will be ferry comforting to the congregation."
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