| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from End of the Tether by Joseph Conrad: danger he had escaped mostly by the sound, and holding
Mr. Massy's coat in his arms.
By this time Sterne (he had been flung out of his
bunk) had set the engines astern. They worked for a
few turns, then a voice bawled out, "Get out of the
damned engine-room, Jack!"--and they stopped; but
the ship had gone clear of the reef and lay still, with a
heavy cloud of steam issuing from the broken deck-
pipes, and vanishing in wispy shapes into the night.
Notwithstanding the suddenness of the disaster there
was no shouting, as if the very violence of the shock
End of the Tether |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Mirror of the Sea by Joseph Conrad: projecting far in advance of his body, and his white nose and
gingery moustache buried in an open book: for he had the habit of
reading as he walked. How he avoided falling into precipices, off
the quays, or down staircases is a great mystery. The sides of his
overcoat bulged out with pocket editions of various poets. When
not engaged in reading Virgil, Homer, or Mistral, in parks,
restaurants, streets, and suchlike public places, he indited
sonnets (in French) to the eyes, ears, chin, hair, and other
visible perfections of a nymph called Therese, the daughter,
honesty compels me to state, of a certain Madame Leonore who kept a
small cafe for sailors in one of the narrowest streets of the old
The Mirror of the Sea |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Madam How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley: And where is the furnace itself? Who can tell that? Under the
roots of the mountains, under the depths of the sea; down "the
path which no fowl knoweth, and which the vulture's eye hath not
seen: the lion's whelp hath not trodden it, nor the fierce lion
passed by it. There He putteth forth His hand upon the rock; He
overturneth the mountain by the roots; He cutteth out rivers among
the rocks; and His eye seeth every precious thing"--while we, like
little ants, run up and down outside the earth, scratching, like
ants, a few feet down, and calling that a deep ravine; or peeping
a few feet down into the crater of a volcano, unable to guess what
precious things may lie below--below even the fire which blazes
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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 King Henry VI by William Shakespeare: WARWICK.
I love no colours, and without all colour
Of base insinuating flattery
I pluck this white rose with Plantagenet.
SUFFOLK.
I pluck this red rose with young Somerset,
And say withal I think he held the right.
VERNON.
Stay, lords and gentlemen, and pluck no more,
Till you conclude that he, upon whose side
The fewest roses are cropp'd from the tree
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