| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley: the neck; and one, catching the pretty babe out of my arms, calls
for water and a priest (for they had their shavelings with them),
and no sooner was it christened than, catching the babe by the
heels, he dashed out its brains,--oh! gentlemen, gentlemen!--
against the ground, as if it had been a kitten; and so did they to
several more innocents that night, after they had christened them;
saying it was best for them to go to heaven while they were still
sure thereof; and so marched us all for slaves, leaving the old
folk and the wounded to die at leisure. But when morning came, and
they knew by my skin that I was no Indian, and by my speech that I
was no Spaniard, they began threatening me with torments, till I
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: is, that among peoples of quality, a wife should be always a
reasonable and agreeable companion, because she cannot always be
young. When the girls are twelve years old, which among them is
the marriageable age, their parents or guardians take them home,
with great expressions of gratitude to the professors, and seldom
without tears of the young lady and her companions.
In the nurseries of females of the meaner sort, the children are
instructed in all kinds of works proper for their sex, and their
several degrees: those intended for apprentices are dismissed at
seven years old, the rest are kept to eleven.
The meaner families who have children at these nurseries, are
Gulliver's Travels |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Rape of Lucrece by William Shakespeare: That knows not parching heat nor freezing cold,
Will we find out; and there we will unfold
To creatures stern sad tunes, to change their kinds:
Since men prove beasts, let beasts bear gentle minds.'
As the poor frighted deer, that stands at gaze,
Wildly determining which way to fly,
Or one encompass'd with a winding maze,
That cannot tread the way out readily;
So with herself is she in mutiny,
To live or die which of the twain were better,
When life is sham'd, and Death reproach's debtor.
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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 Moran of the Lady Letty by Frank Norris: "I'm not hungry enough for that just now," he told himself. "Say,
Jim," he said, turning to the Chinaman next him on the bunk-ledge,
"say, what kind of boat is this? What you do--where you go?"
The other moved away impatiently.
"No sabe, no sabe," he answered, shaking his head and frowning.
Throughout the whole of that strange meal these were the only
words spoken.
When Wilbur came on deck again he noted that the "Bertha Millner"
had already left the whistling-buoy astern. Off to the east, her
sails just showing above the waves, was a pilot-boat with the
number 7 on her mainsail. The evening was closing in; the
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