| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from An Unsocial Socialist by George Bernard Shaw: with an unconcerned expression, whilst Max was snuffing at her in
restless anxiety opposite.
"I must go home," she said. "I must go home instantly."
"Not at all," said Trefusis, soothingly. "They have just sent
word to say that everything is settled satisfactorily and that
you need not come."
"Have they?" she said faintly. Then she lay down again, and it
seemed to her that a very long time elapsed. Suddenly
recollecting that Trefusis had supported her gently with his hand
to prevent her falling back too rudely, she rose again, and this
time got upon her feet with his help.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Barlaam and Ioasaph by St. John of Damascus: lordship is beyond compare, who only is holy and dwelleth in
holiness, who with the Father and with the Holy Ghost is
glorified; into this faith I have been baptized. And I
acknowledge and glorify and worship One God in Three persons, of
one substance, and not to be confounded, increate and immortal,
eternal, infinite, boundless, without body, without passions,
immutable, unchangeable, undefinable, the fountain of goodness,
righteousness and everlasting light, maker of all things visible
and invisible, containing and sustaining all things, provident
for all, ruler and King of all. Without him was there nothing
made, nor without his providence can aught subsist. He is the
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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 Voyage to Abyssinia by Father Lobo: have sticks likewise, with which they strike the ground,
accompanying the blow with a motion of their whole bodies. They
begin their concert by stamping their feet on the ground, and
playing gently on their instruments; but when they have heated
themselves by degrees, they leave off drumming, and fall to leaping,
dancing, and clapping their hands, at the same time straining their
voices to the utmost pitch, till at length they have no regard
either to the tune or the pauses, and seem rather a riotous than a
religious assembly. For this manner of worship they cite the psalm
of David, "O clap your hands all ye nations." Thus they misapply
the sacred writings to defend practices yet more corrupt than those
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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 Tess of the d'Urbervilles, A Pure Woman by Thomas Hardy: their eggs; while out of doors the plots that each
succeeding householder had carefully shaped with his
spade were torn by the cocks in wildest fashion.
The garden in which the cottage stood was surrounded by
a wall, and could only be entered through a door.
When Tess had occupied herself about an hour the next
morning in altering and improving the arrangements,
according to her skilled ideas as the daughter of a
professed poulterer, the door in the wall opened and a
servant in white cap and apron entered. She had come
from the manor-house.
Tess of the d'Urbervilles, A Pure Woman |
