| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland by Olive Schreiner: I'd only got the other girl, and I didn't much fancy her; she was only a
child. Well, I went down Umtali way and got a lot of liquor and stuff, and
when I got back to camp I found them clean dried out. They hadn't had a
drop of liquor in camp for ten days, and the rainy season coming on and no
knowing when they'd get any. Well, I'd a vatje of Old Dop as high as that-
-," indicating with his hand an object about two feet high, "and the other
fellow wanted to buy it from me. I knew two of that. I said I wanted it
for myself. He offered me this, and he offered me that. At last I said,
'Well, just to oblige you, I give you the vatje and you give me the girl!'
And so he did. Most people wouldn't have fancied a nigger girl who'd had
two nigger children, but I didn't mind; it's all the same to me. And 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 Flower Fables by Louisa May Alcott: lovingly above her, and sang in the clear moonlight.
With the sun rose the Fairies, and, with Eva, hastened away to
the fountain, whose cool waters were soon filled with little forms,
and the air ringing with happy voices, as the Elves floated in the
blue waves among the fair white lilies, or sat on the green moss,
smoothing their bright locks, and wearing fresh garlands of dewy
flowers. At length the Queen came forth, and her subjects gathered
round her, and while the flowers bowed their heads, and the trees
hushed their rustling, the Fairies sang their morning hymn to
the Father of birds and blossoms, who had made the earth so fair a
home for them.
Flower Fables |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from U. S. Project Trinity Report by Carl Maag and Steve Rohrer: south-central New Mexico.
Three weeks later, on 6 August, the first uranium-fueled nuclear bomb,
a gun-type weapon code-named LITTLE BOY, was detonated over the
Japanese city of Hiroshima. On 9 August, the FAT MAN nuclear bomb, a
plutonium-fueled implosion weapon identical to the TRINITY device, was
detonated over another Japanese city, Nagasaki. Two days later, the
Japanese Government informed the United States of its decision to end
the war. On 2 September 1945, the Japanese Empire officially
surrendered to the Allied Governments, bringing World War II to an
end.
In the years devoted to the development and construction of a nuclear
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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 Copy-Cat & Other Stories by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: rebellion. Jim Patterson, the son of the rector, and
of them all the most venturesome, had planned to
take -- he called it "take"; he meant to pay for it,
anyway, he said, as soon as he could shake enough
money out of his nickel savings-bank -- one of his
father's Plymouth Rock chickens and have a chicken-
roast in the woods back of Dr. Trumbull's. He
had planned for Johnny to take some ears of corn
suitable for roasting from his father's garden; for
Lee to take some cookies out of a stone jar in his
mother's pantry; and for Arnold to take some pota-
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