| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Travels of Sir John Mandeville by Sir John Mandeville: in his chamber. He let void out of his chamber all manner of men,
lords and others, for he would speak with me in counsel. And there
he asked me how the Christian men governed them in our country.
And I said him, "Right well, thanked be God!"
And he said me, "Truly nay! For ye Christian men reck right
nought, how untruly to serve God! Ye should give ensample to the
lewd people for to do well, and ye give them ensample to do evil.
For the commons, upon festival days, when they should go to church
to serve God, then go they to taverns, and be there in gluttony all
the day and all night, and eat and drink as beasts that have no
reason, and wit not when they have enough. And also the Christian
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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 Land of Footprints by Stewart Edward White: Somali cook, and six ordinary bearers to do general labour. This
small safari we started off afoot for Juja. The whole lot cost us
about what we would pay one Chinaman on the Pacific Coast.
Next day we ourselves drove out in the mule buckboard. The rains
were on, and the road was very muddy. After the vital tropical
fashion the grass was springing tall in the natural meadows and
on the plains and the brief-lived white lilies and an abundance
of ground flowers washed the slopes with colour. Beneath the
grass covering, the entire surface of the ground was an inch or
so deep in water. This was always most surprising, for,
apparently, the whole country should have been high and dry.
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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 Prince by Nicolo Machiavelli: The following is a list of the works of Machiavelli:
Principal works. Discorso sopra le cose di Pisa, 1499; Del modo di
trattare i popoli della Valdichiana ribellati, 1502; Del modo tenuto
dal duca Valentino nell' ammazzare Vitellozzo Vitelli, Oliverotto da
Fermo, etc., 1502; Discorso sopra la provisione del danaro, 1502;
Decennale primo (poem in terza rima), 1506; Ritratti delle cose dell'
Alemagna, 1508-12; Decennale secondo, 1509; Ritratti delle cose di
Francia, 1510; Discorsi sopra la prima deca di T. Livio, 3 vols.,
1512-17; Il Principe, 1513; Andria, comedy translated from Terence,
1513 (?); Mandragola, prose comedy in five acts, with prologue in
verse, 1513; Della lingua (dialogue), 1514; Clizia, comedy in prose,
The Prince |
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: "You have avoided them!"
"They don't attract me."
"They repel you?"
"For me," said the doctor, "for any friendliness, a woman
must be modest. . . . My habits of thought are old-fashioned,
I suppose, but the mere suggestion about a woman that there
were no barriers, no reservation, that in any fashion she
might more than meet me half way . . . "
His facial expression completed his sentence.
"Now I wonder," whispered Sir Richmond, and hesitated for a
moment before he carried the great research into the
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