| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: provoked at the sight of a lawyer, a pickpocket, a colonel, a
fool, a lord, a gamester, a politician, a whoremonger, a
physician, an evidence, a suborner, an attorney, a traitor, or
the like; this is all according to the due course of things: but
when I behold a lump of deformity and diseases, both in body and
mind, smitten with pride, it immediately breaks all the measures
of my patience; neither shall I be ever able to comprehend how
such an animal, and such a vice, could tally together. The wise
and virtuous HOUYHNHNMS, who abound in all excellences that can
adorn a rational creature, have no name for this vice in their
language, which has no terms to express any thing that is evil,
Gulliver's Travels |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield: the stove, cooking breakfast. "Breathing into that, now, I suppose,"
thought Andreas, and was very short with the servant girl. She did not
notice. She was full of terrified joy and importance in the goings on
upstairs. She felt she was learning the secrets of life with every breath
she drew. Had laid the table that morning saying, "Boy," as she put down
the first dish, "Girl," as she placed the second--it had worked out with
the saltspoon to "Boy." "For two pins I'd tell the master that, to comfort
him, like," she decided. But the Master gave her no opening.
"Put an extra cup and saucer on the table," he said; "the doctor may want
some coffee."
"The doctor, sir?" The servant girl whipped a spoon out of a pan, and
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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 Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: "Many years, in peace and quiet,
On the peaceful Star of Evening
Dwelt Osseo with his father;
Many years, in song and flutter,
At the doorway of the wigwam,
Hung the cage with rods of silver,
And fair Oweenee, the faithful,
Bore a son unto Osseo,
With the beauty of his mother,
With the courage of his father.
"And the boy grew up and prospered,
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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 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain: Louis Fourteen, and Louis Fifteen, and James Second,
and Edward Second, and Richard Third, and forty
more; besides all them Saxon heptarchies that used
to rip around so in old times and raise Cain. My,
you ought to seen old Henry the Eight when he was
in bloom. He WAS a blossom. He used to marry a
new wife every day, and chop off her head next morn-
ing. And he would do it just as indifferent as if he
was ordering up eggs. 'Fetch up Nell Gwynn,' he
says. They fetch her up. Next morning, 'Chop off
her head!' And they chop it off. 'Fetch up Jane
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn |
