| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain: hauled in by the wagon-load like that before.
By and by, when they was asleep and snoring, Jim
says:
"Don't it s'prise you de way dem kings carries on,
Huck?"
"No," I says, "it don't."
"Why don't it, Huck?"
"Well, it don't, because it's in the breed. I reckon
they're all alike,"
"But, Huck, dese kings o' ourn is reglar rapscal-
lions; dat's jist what dey is; dey's reglar rapscallions."
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Pool in the Desert by Sara Jeanette Duncan: some reason I refrained from taking the cue. I would not lug him in
either.
'That is a new accomplishment,' was as much as I felt I could say
with dignity, and she responded:
'Yes, isn't it?'
I felt some slight indignation on Lady Pilkey's account. 'Do you
really think you ought to do things like that at the eleventh hour?'
I asked, but Dora smiled at a glance, the hypocrisy out of my face.
'What does anything matter?' she demanded.
I knew perfectly well the standard by which nothing mattered, and
there was no use, of course, in going on pretending that I did not.
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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 The Tanach: Deuteronomy 12: 17 Thou mayest not eat within thy gates the tithe of thy corn, or of thy wine, or of thine oil, or the firstlings of thy herd or of thy flock, nor any of thy vows which thou vowest, nor thy freewill-offerings, nor the offering of thy hand;
Deuteronomy 12: 18 but thou shalt eat them before the LORD thy God in the place which the LORD thy God shall choose, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, and the Levite that is within thy gates; and thou shalt rejoice before the LORD thy God in all that thou puttest thy hand unto.
Deuteronomy 12: 19 Take heed to thyself that thou forsake not the Levite as long as thou livest upon thy land.
Deuteronomy 12: 20 When the LORD thy God shall enlarge thy border, as He hath promised thee, and thou shalt say: 'I will eat flesh', because thy soul desireth to eat flesh; thou mayest eat flesh, after all the desire of thy soul.
Deuteronomy 12: 21 If the place which the LORD thy God shall choose to put His name there be too far from thee, then thou shalt kill of thy herd and of thy flock, which the LORD hath given thee, as I have commanded thee, and thou shalt eat within thy gates, after all the desire of thy soul.
Deuteronomy 12: 22 Howbeit as the gazelle and as the hart is eaten, so thou shalt eat thereof; the unclean and the clean may eat thereof alike.
Deuteronomy 12: 23 Only be stedfast in not eating the blood; for the blood is the life; and thou shalt not eat the life with the flesh.
The Tanach |
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 Maria, or the Wrongs of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft: fruit, while I was, literally speaking, fed with the refuse of the
table, with her leavings. A liquorish tooth is, I believe, common
to children, and I used to steal any thing sweet, that I could
catch up with a chance of concealment. When detected, she was not
content to chastize me herself at the moment, but, on my father's
return in the evening (he was a shopman), the principal discourse
was to recount my faults, and attribute them to the wicked disposition
which I had brought into the world with me, inherited from my
mother. He did not fail to leave the marks of his resentment on my
body, and then solaced himself by playing with my sister.--I could
have murdered her at those moments. To save myself from these
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