| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Chinese Boy and Girl by Isaac Taylor Headland: are taken, the Chinese magician had two hollow cylinders,
which exactly fit into each other, that he took out of a box
and placed upon a cylindrical chest, and from these two
cylinders--each of which he repeatedly showed us as being
without top or bottom and empty--he took a dinner of
a dozen courses.
He called upon the baker to bring bread, the grocer to
bring vegetables, and after each call he took out of the
cylinders the thing called for. He finally called the wine
shop to bring wine, and removing both cylinders, he
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Love and Friendship by Jane Austen: Manner from that in which they have been used to receive it, as
they are now arrived at that age when it is necessary for them in
some measure to become conversant with the World, My Augusta is
17 and her sister scarcely a twelvemonth younger. I flatter
myself that their education has been such as will not disgrace
their appearance in the World, and that THEY will not disgrace
their Education I have every reason to beleive. Indeed they are
sweet Girls--. Sensible yet unaffected--Accomplished yet Easy--.
Lively yet Gentle--. As their progress in every thing they have
learnt has been always the same, I am willing to forget the
difference of age, and to introduce them together into Public.
Love and Friendship |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Second Home by Honore de Balzac: than it seemed possible to ascribe to a human being, broke into song,
like the first nightingale when winter is past. Though it mingled with
the voices of a thousand other women and the notes of the organ, that
voice stirred his nerves as though they vibrated to the too full and
too piercing sounds of a harmonium. The Parisian turned round, and,
seeing a young figure, though, the head being bent, her face was
entirely concealed by a large white bonnet, concluded that the voice
was hers. He fancied that he recognized Angelique in spite of a brown
merino pelisse that wrapped her, and he nudged his father's elbow.
"Yes, there she is," said the Count, after looking where his son
pointed, and then, by an expressive glance, he directed his attention
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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 Georgics by Virgil: Of Ida; nor of self-same fashion spring
Fat olives, orchades, and radii
And bitter-berried pausians, no, nor yet
Apples and the forests of Alcinous;
Nor from like cuttings are Crustumian pears
And Syrian, and the heavy hand-fillers.
Not the same vintage from our trees hangs down,
Which Lesbos from Methymna's tendril plucks.
Vines Thasian are there, Mareotids white,
These apt for richer soils, for lighter those:
Psithian for raisin-wine more useful, thin
Georgics |
