| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Macbeth by William Shakespeare: Vnreall mock'ry hence. Why so, being gone
I am a man againe: pray you sit still
La. You haue displac'd the mirth,
Broke the good meeting, with most admir'd disorder
Macb. Can such things be,
And ouercome vs like a Summers Clowd,
Without our speciall wonder? You make me strange
Euen to the disposition that I owe,
When now I thinke you can behold such sights,
And keepe the naturall Rubie of your Cheekes,
When mine is blanch'd with feare
Macbeth |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Atheist's Mass by Honore de Balzac: saw into the sufferer and his malady by an intuition, natural or
acquired, which enabled him to grasp the diagnostics peculiar to
the individual, to determine the very time, the hour, the minute
when an operation should be performed, making due allowance for
atmospheric conditions and peculiarities of individual
temperament. To proceed thus, hand in hand with nature, had he
then studied the constant assimilation by living beings, of the
elements contained in the atmosphere, or yielded by the earth to
man who absorbs them, deriving from them a particular expression
of life? Did he work it all out by the power of deduction and
analogy, to which we owe the genius of Cuvier? Be this as it may,
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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 Twice Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne: though with a quivering lip. "It has stood too long on a
traitor's shoulders!"
"You must make haste to chop it off, then," calmly replied the
Colonel; "for a few hours longer, and not all the power of Sir
William Howe, nor of his master, shall cause one of these gray
hairs to fall. The empire of Britain in this ancient province is
at its last gasp to-night;--almost while I speak it is a dead
corpse;--and methinks the shadows of the old governors are fit
mourners at its funeral!"
With these words Colonel Joliffe threw on his cloak, and drawing
his granddaughter's arm within his own, retired from the last
Twice Told Tales |
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 Royalty Restored/London Under Charles II by J. Fitzgerald Molloy: Spencer.--The countess intrigues with an acrobat.--Talk of the
town.--The mistress created a duchess.
At this time the kingdom stood in uttermost danger, being brought
to that condition by his majesty's negligence towards its
concerns. The peril was, moreover, heightened from the fact of
the king being impatient to rid himself of those who had the
nation's credit at heart, and sought to uphold its interests. To
this end he was led in part by his own inclinations, and
furthermore by his friends' solicitations. Foremost amongst
those with whose services he was anxious to dispense, were the
chancellor, my Lord Clarendon, and the lord lieutenant of
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