| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas: clear that he there beheld some extraordinary object.
The three friends drew near and discovered a young man
stretched on the ground, bathed in a pool of blood. It was
evident that he had attempted to regain his bed, but had not
had sufficient strength to do so.
Athos, who imagined that he saw him move, was the first to
go up to him.
"Well?" inquired D'Artagnan.
"Well, if he is dead," said Athos, "he has not been so long,
for he is still warm. But no, his heart is beating. Ho,
there, my friend!"
Twenty Years After |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Disputation of the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences by Dr. Martin Luther: 17. [42] Docendi sunt christiani, quod Pape mens non est,
redemptionem veniarum ulla ex parte comparandam esse operibus
misericordie.
18. [43] Docendi sunt christiani, quod dans pauperi aut mutuans
egenti melius facit quam si venias redimereet.
19. [44] Quia per opus charitatis crescit charitas et fit homo
melior, sed per venias non fit melior sed tantummodo a pena
liberior.
20. [45] Docendi sunt christiani, quod, qui videt egenum et
neglecto eo dat pro veniis, non idulgentias Pape sed indignationem
dei sibi vendicat.
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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 Don Quixote by Miquel de Cervantes: know what he did with them, or what he spent them on, for it is one of
the serious omissions of the work."
"Senor Samson, I am not in a humour now for going into accounts or
explanations," said Sancho; "for there's a sinking of the stomach come
over me, and unless I doctor it with a couple of sups of the old stuff
it will put me on the thorn of Santa Lucia. I have it at home, and
my old woman is waiting for me; after dinner I'll come back, and
will answer you and all the world every question you may choose to
ask, as well about the loss of the ass as about the spending of the
hundred crowns;" and without another word or waiting for a reply he
made off home.
Don Quixote |
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 New Machiavelli by H. G. Wells: conception of the Boer War had been clumsy and puerile, the costly
errors of that struggle appalling, and the subsequent campaign of
Mr. Chamberlain for Tariff Reform seemed calculated to combine the
financial adventurers of the Empire in one vast conspiracy against
the consumer. The cant of Imperialism was easy to learn and use; it
was speedily adopted by all sorts of base enterprises and turned to
all sorts of base ends. But a big child is permitted big mischief,
and my mind was now continually returning to the persuasion that
after all in some development of the idea of Imperial patriotism
might be found that wide, rough, politically acceptable expression
of a constructive dream capable of sustaining a great educational
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