| 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: On the 16th day of June, 1703, a boy on the top-mast discovered
land. On the 17th, we came in full view of a great island, or
continent (for we knew not whether;) on the south side whereof
was a small neck of land jutting out into the sea, and a creek
too shallow to hold a ship of above one hundred tons. We cast
anchor within a league of this creek, and our captain sent a
dozen of his men well armed in the long-boat, with vessels for
water, if any could be found. I desired his leave to go with
them, that I might see the country, and make what discoveries I
could. When we came to land we saw no river or spring, nor any
sign of inhabitants. Our men therefore wandered on the shore to
Gulliver's Travels |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain: When you got to the table you couldn't go right to
eating, but you had to wait for the widow to tuck
down her head and grumble a little over the victuals,
though there warn't really anything the matter with
them, -- that is, nothing only everything was cooked
by itself. In a barrel of odds and ends it is different;
things get mixed up, and the juice kind of swaps
around, and the things go better.
After supper she got out her book and learned me
about Moses and the Bulrushers, and I was in a sweat
to find out all about him; but by and by she let it out
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne: Instantly I snatch'd off my wig, and threw it perpendicularly, with all
imaginable violence, up to the top of the room--indeed I caught it as it
fell--but there was an end of the matter; nor do I think any think else in
Nature would have given such immediate ease: She, dear Goddess, by an
instantaneous impulse, in all provoking cases, determines us to a sally of
this or that member--or else she thrusts us into this or that place, or
posture of body, we know not why--But mark, madam, we live amongst riddles
and mysteries--the most obvious things, which come in our way, have dark
sides, which the quickest sight cannot penetrate into; and even the
clearest and most exalted understandings amongst us find ourselves puzzled
and at a loss in almost every cranny of nature's works: so that this, like
|
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 Bride of Lammermoor by Walter Scott: readily complied with by the Tory gentlemen, or Cavaliers, as
they affected to style themselves, in which faction most of his
kinsmen were enrolled. The Presbyterian Church judicatory of the
bounds, considering the ceremony as a bravading insult upon their
authority, had applied to the Lord Keeper, as the nearest privy
councillor, for a warrant to prevent its being carried into
effect; so that, when the clergyman had opened his prayer-book,
an officer of the law, supported by some armed men, commanded him
to be silent. An insult which fired the whol assembly with
indignation was particularly and instantly resented by the only
son of the deceased, Edgar, popularly called the Master of
The Bride of Lammermoor |
