| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death by Patrick Henry: Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years.
Have we anything new to offer upon the subject? Nothing. We have held the
subject up in every light of which it is capable; but it has been all in vain.
Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we
find which have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir,
deceive ourselves. Sir, we have done everything that could be done to avert
the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated;
we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have
implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and
Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced
additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded;
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The American by Henry James: furnished with mirrors and clocks. Newman thought them magnificent,
thanked Tristram heartily, immediately took possession, and had one
of his trunks standing for three months in his drawing-room.
One day Mrs. Tristram told him that her beautiful friend, Madame de Cintre,
had returned from the country; that she had met her three days before,
coming out of the Church of St. Sulpice; she herself having journeyed
to that distant quarter in quest of an obscure lace-mender, of whose skill
she had heard high praise.
"And how were those eyes?" Newman asked.
"Those eyes were red with weeping, if you please!" said Mrs. Tristram.
"She had been to confession."
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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 Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, etc. by Oscar Wilde: the Committee, that when the real man came up they black-balled him
unanimously. Lord Arthur was a good deal puzzled at the technical
terms used in both books, and had begun to regret that he had not
paid more attention to his classics at Oxford, when in the second
volume of Erskine, he found a very interesting and complete account
of the properties of aconitine, written in fairly clear English.
It seemed to him to be exactly the poison he wanted. It was swift
- indeed, almost immediate, in its effect - perfectly painless, and
when taken in the form of a gelatine capsule, the mode recommended
by Sir Mathew, not by any means unpalatable. He accordingly made a
note, upon his shirt-cuff, of the amount necessary for a fatal
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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 Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: or other to dispose of the ship, and come back in some of the
vessels of the country such as we could get. This was approved of
as the best method for our security, and accordingly we steered
away NNE., keeping above fifty leagues off from the usual course to
the eastward. This, however, put us to some inconvenience: for,
first, the winds, when we came that distance from the shore, seemed
to be more steadily against us, blowing almost trade, as we call
it, from the E. and ENE., so that we were a long while upon our
voyage, and we were but ill provided with victuals for so long a
run; and what was still worse, there was some danger that those
English and Dutch ships whose boats pursued us, whereof some were
Robinson Crusoe |
