| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Master of Ballantrae by Robert Louis Stevenson: very astonishing way to make you smart for your disloyalty. Up and
begone. The door you let them in by will serve for your departure.
I do not choose my son shall see your face again."
"I am rejoiced to find you bear the thing so quietly," said I, when
we were forth again by ourselves.
"Quietly!" cries he, and put my hand suddenly against his heart,
which struck upon his bosom like a sledge.
At this revelation I was filled with wonder and fear. There was no
constitution could bear so violent a strain - his least of all,
that was unhinged already; and I decided in my mind that we must
bring this monstrous situation to an end.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: will sleep well!"
Two hours more of walking brought us through Ausser-gschloss and
Inner-gschloss, two groups of herdsmen's huts, tenanted only in
summer, at the head of the Tauernthal. Midway between them lies a
little chapel, cut into the solid rock for shelter from the
avalanches. This lofty vale is indeed rightly named; for it is
shut off from the rest of the world. The portal is a cliff down
which the stream rushes in foam and thunder. On either hand rises
a mountain wall. Within, the pasture is fresh and green, sprinkled
with Alpine roses, and the pale river flows swiftly down between
the rows of dark wooden houses. At the head of the vale towers 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 Hamlet by William Shakespeare: my Mother had not borne me. I am very prowd, reuengefull,
Ambitious, with more offences at my becke,
then I haue thoughts to put them in imagination, to giue
them shape, or time to acte them in. What should such
Fellowes as I do, crawling betweene Heauen and Earth.
We are arrant Knaues all, beleeue none of vs. Goe thy
wayes to a Nunnery. Where's your Father?
Ophe. At home, my Lord
Ham. Let the doores be shut vpon him, that he may
play the Foole no way, but in's owne house. Farewell
Ophe. O helpe him, you sweet Heauens
Hamlet |
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 In the Cage by Henry James: of its somehow coming to him that her own interest in him could
take a pure and noble account of such an infatuation and even of
such an impropriety. As yet, however, she could only rub along
with the hope that an accident, sooner or later, might give her a
lift toward popping out with something that would surprise and
perhaps even, some fine day, assist him. What could people mean
moreover--cheaply sarcastic people--by not feeling all that could
be got out of the weather? SHE felt it all, and seemed literally
to feel it most when she went quite wrong, speaking of the stuffy
days as cold, of the cold ones as stuffy, and betraying how little
she knew, in her cage, of whether it was foul or fair. It was for
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