| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lady Baltimore by Owen Wister: "The act," I said, "would bring grace, wherever it comes from."
"Yes," he assented. "If in the stars and awfulness of space there's
nothing, that does not trouble me; for my greater self is inside me,
safe. And our country has a greater self somewhere. Think!"
"I do not have to think," I replied, "when I know the nobleness we have
risen to at times."
"And I," he pursued, "happen to believe it is not all only stars and
space; and that God, as much as any ship-builder, rejoices to watch every
tiniest boat meet and brave the storm."
Out of his troubles he had brought such mood, sweetness instead of
bitterness; he was saying as plainly as if his actual words said it,
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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 Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare: PETRUCHIO.
Sir, understand you this of me, in sooth:
The youngest daughter, whom you hearken for,
Her father keeps from all access of suitors,
And will not promise her to any man
Until the elder sister first be wed;
The younger then is free, and not before.
TRANIO.
If it be so, sir, that you are the man
Must stead us all, and me amongst the rest;
And if you break the ice, and do this feat,
The Taming of the Shrew |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy: that the substance is estimated by the superficies, and the whole
rejected.
Grace, however, was no specialist in men's manners, and she
admired the sentiment without thinking of the form. And she was
embarrassed: "lovely creature" made explanation awkward to her
gentle modesty.
"But can it be," said he, suddenly, "that you really were here?"
"I have to confess that I have been in the room once before,"
faltered she. "The woman showed me in, and went away to fetch
you; but as she did not return, I left."
"And you saw me asleep," he murmured, with the faintest show of
The Woodlanders |
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 The Secret Places of the Heart by H. G. Wells: appeared upon his brow and ran together; he bared his teeth
in a snarl; his hat slipped over one eye. He groaned with
rage. Then, using the starting handle as a club, he assailed
the car. He smote the brazen Mercury from its foothold and
sent it and a part of the radiator cap with it flying across
the road. He beat at the wings of the bonnet, until they bent
in under his blows. Finally, he hurled the starting-handle at
the wind-screen and smashed it. The starting-handle rattled
over the bonnet and fell to the ground. . . .
The paroxysm was over. Ten seconds later this cataclysmal
lunatic had reverted to sanity--a rather sheepish sanity.
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