| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lysis by Plato: that you love?
No; but I deny that I make verses or address compositions to him.
He is not in his right mind, said Ctesippus; he is talking nonsense, and is
stark mad.
O Hippothales, I said, if you have ever made any verses or songs in honour
of your favourite, I do not want to hear them; but I want to know the
purport of them, that I may be able to judge of your mode of approaching
your fair one.
Ctesippus will be able to tell you, he said; for if, as he avers, the sound
of my words is always dinning in his ears, he must have a very accurate
knowledge and recollection of them.
Lysis |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Riverman by Stewart Edward White: "Sorry I haven't got time to enjoy you just now, Charlie," he
remarked. "I'd take it slower, if I were you."
He departed, catching fragments of vows anent never going on any
more errands for nobody, and getting his time if ever again he went
away from his wanigan.
Orde stopped short outside the fringe of brush to utter another
irrepressible chuckle of amusement.
The centre of the dam was occupied by Reed. The old man was still
in full regalia, his plug hat fuzzier than ever, and thrust even
farther back on his head, his coat-tails and loose trousers flapping
at his every movement as he paced back and forth with military
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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 The Europeans by Henry James: They have all been happy ones; I don't think there are any I should n't tell.
They were very pleasant and very pretty; I should like to go over them
in memory. Sit down again, and I will begin," he added in a moment,
with his naturally persuasive smile.
Gertrude sat down again on that day, and she sat down on
several other days. Felix, while he plied his brush, told her
a great many stories, and she listened with charmed avidity.
Her eyes rested upon his lips; she was very serious; sometimes,
from her air of wondering gravity, he thought she was displeased.
But Felix never believed for more than a single moment in any displeasure
of his own producing. This would have been fatuity if the optimism
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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 Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling: He belonged to a screw-gun battery, for I could hear the rattle of
the straps and rings and chains and things on his saddle pad. The
screw-guns are tiny little cannon made in two pieces, that are
screwed together when the time comes to use them. They are taken
up mountains, anywhere that a mule can find a road, and they are
very useful for fighting in rocky country.
Behind the mule there was a camel, with his big soft feet
squelching and slipping in the mud, and his neck bobbing to and
fro like a strayed hen's. Luckily, I knew enough of beast
language--not wild-beast language, but camp-beast language, of
course--from the natives to know what he was saying.
The Jungle Book |
