| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from On the Duty of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau: one does not remain inert to make way for the other, but
both obey their own laws, and spring and grow and flourish
as best they can, till one, perchance, overshadows and
destroys the other. If a plant cannot live according to
nature, it dies; and so a man.
The night in prison was novel and interesting enough.
The prisoners in their shirtsleeves were enjoying a chat and
the evening air in the doorway, when I entered. But the
jailer said, "Come, boys, it is time to lock up"; and so
they dispersed, and I heard the sound of their steps
returning into the hollow apartments. My room-mate was
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Life in the Iron-Mills by Rebecca Davis: looked at a rare mosaic in the morning; only the man was the
more amusing study of the two.
"Are you answered? Why, May, look at him! 'De profundis
clamavi.' Or, to quote in English, 'Hungry and thirsty, his
soul faints in him.' And so Money sends back its answer into
the depths through you, Kirby! Very clear the answer, too!--I
think I remember reading the same words somewhere: washing your
hands in Eau de Cologne, and saying, 'I am innocent of the blood
of this man. See ye to it!'"
Kirby flushed angrily.
"You quote Scripture freely."
Life in the Iron-Mills |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Chance by Joseph Conrad: an intense dislike for the job, beating about the bush and only
puzzling Captain Anthony, the providential man, who, if he expected
the girl to appear at any moment, must have been on tenterhooks all
the time, and beside himself with impatience to see the back of his
brother-in-law. How was it that he had not got rid of Fyne long
before in any case? I don't mean by actually throwing him out of
the window, but in some other resolute manner.
Surely Fyne had not impressed him. That he was an impressionable
man I could not doubt. The presence of the girl there on the
pavement before me proved this up to the hilt--and, well, yes,
touchingly enough.
Chance |
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 Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin by Robert Louis Stevenson: first to come from the large low pulley, but when the engines
stopped, the noise continued; and we now imagine it is something
slipping down the cable, and the pulley but acts as sounding-board
to the big fiddle. Whether it is only an anchor or one of the two
other cables, we know not. We hope it is not the cable just laid
down.
'June 19.
'10 A.M. - All our alarm groundless, it would appear: the odd
noise ceased after a time, and there was no mark sufficiently
strong on the large cable to warrant the suspicion that we had cut
another line through. I stopped up on the look-out till three in
|
