| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Oakdale Affair by Edgar Rice Burroughs: "'Thinkin' as how this old world joked
"'In callin' only some men kings
"'While I sat there a-blowin' rings.'"
He paused to kindle a sliver of wood at the stove.
"In these parlous times," he spoke as though to himself,
"one must economize. They are taking a quarter of an
ounce out of each five cents worth of chewing, I am told;
so doubtless each box must be five or six matches short
of full count. Even these papers seem thinner than of
yore and they will only sell one book to a customer at
that. Indeed Sherman was right."
The Oakdale Affair |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Essays of Francis Bacon by Francis Bacon: custom leaveth him. They are happy men, whose
natures sort with their vocations; otherwise they
may say, multum incola fuit anima mea; when
they converse in those things, they do not affect.
In studies, whatsoever a man commandeth upon
himself, let him set hours for it; but whatsoever is
agreeable to his nature, let him take no care for
any set times; for his thoughts will fly to it, of
themselves; so as the spaces of other business, or
studies, will suffice. A man's nature, runs either to
herbs or weeds; therefore let him seasonably water
Essays of Francis Bacon |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Historical Lecturers and Essays by Charles Kingsley: force, not through cupidity, but through the highest morality;
through justice, truthfulness, humanity, self-denial, modesty,
courtesy, and all which makes man or woman lovely in the eyes of
mortals or of God.
Yes, the "Cyropaedia" is a noble book, about a noble personage. But
I cannot forget that there are nobler words by far concerning that
same noble personage, in the magnificent series of Hebrew Lyrics,
which begins "Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith the Lord"--in
which the inspired poet, watching the rise of Cyrus and his
Puritans, and the fall of Babylon, and the idolatries of the East,
and the coming deliverance of his own countrymen, speaks of the
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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 Selected Writings of Guy De Maupassant by Guy De Maupassant: he could not always be understood, and he had a bald patch on the
top of his head, which made him look rather like a monk, with a
fringe of curly, bright, golden hair round the circle of bare
skin.
The commandant shook hands with him, and drank his cup of coffee
(the sixth that morning) at a draught, while he listened to his
subordinate's report of what had occurred; and then they both
went to the window, and declared that it was a very unpleasant
outlook. The major, who was a quiet man, with a wife at home,
could accommodate himself to everything; but the captain, who was
rather fast, being in the habit of frequenting low resorts, and
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