| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Finished by H. Rider Haggard: feeling that came over me. No doubt the sun was up behind the
Ceza Stronghold that I have mentioned, which towered high behind
me, for the sky above grew light with the red rays of its rising.
But all the vast Black Kloof with its huge fantastic rocks was
still plunged in gloom, whereof the shadows seemed to oppress my
heart, weary as I was with my wakeful night and many anxieties.
I was horribly nervous also and, as it proved, not without
reason. Presently I heard rustlings on the further side of the
fence as of people creeping about cautiously, and the sound of
whispering. Then of a sudden the gate was thrown open and
through it emerged about a dozen Zulu warriors, all of them
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Dreams by Olive Schreiner: He answered. "None."
She said, "Is the water deep?"
He said, "Deep."
She said, "Is the floor worn?"
He said, "It is. Your foot may slip at any time, and you may be lost."
She said, "Have any crossed already?"
He said, "Some have tried!"
She said, "Is there a track to show where the best fording is?"
He said, "It has to be made."
She shaded her eyes with her hand; and she said, "I will go."
And he said, "You must take off the clothes you wore in the desert: they
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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 Essays & Lectures by Oscar Wilde: for modern anthropologists to find.
The ancient authors, however, are unanimous in insisting that the
family is the ultimate unit of society, though, as I have said, an
inductive study of primitive races, or even the accounts given of
them by Herodotus, would have shown them that the [Greek text which
cannot be reproduced] of a personal household, to use Plato's
expression, is really a most complex notion appearing always in a
late stage of civilisation, along with recognition of private
property and the rights of individualism.
Philology also, which in the hands of modern investigators has
proved such a splendid instrument of research, was in ancient days
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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 New Arabian Nights by Robert Louis Stevenson: the arrivals, and, if they should prove to be acquaintances,
greeting them as soon as they had landed.
Some time before eleven, while the tide was still dangerously low,
a boat's lantern appeared close in shore; and, my attention being
thus awakened, I could perceive another still far to seaward,
violently tossed, and sometimes hidden by the billows. The
weather, which was getting dirtier as the night went on, and the
perilous situation of the yacht upon a lee shore, had probably
driven them to attempt a landing at the earliest possible moment.
A little afterwards, four yachtsmen carrying a very heavy chest,
and guided by a fifth with a lantern, passed close in front of me
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