| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Long Odds by H. Rider Haggard: I. On it came. I could see that it was yellow, and prepared for
action, when instead of a lion out bounded a beautiful reit bok which
had been lying in the shelter of the pan. It must, by the way, have
been a reit bok of a peculiarly confiding nature to lay itself down with
the lion, like the lamb of prophesy, but I suppose the reeds were thick,
and that it kept a long way off.
"Well, I let the reit bok go, and it went like the wind, and kept my
eyes fixed upon the reeds. The fire was burning like a furnace now; the
flames crackling and roaring as they bit into the reeds, sending spouts
of fire twenty feet and more into the air, and making the hot air dance
above in a way that was perfectly dazzling. But the reeds were still
Long Odds |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin by Robert Louis Stevenson: classes, though by far the greater number were of the better
dressed class - followed. Indeed, it was a splendid sight: the
mob in front chanting the "MARSEILLAISE," the national war hymn,
grave and powerful, sweetened by the night air - though night in
these splendid streets was turned into day, every window was filled
with lamps, dim torches were tossing in the crowd . . . for Guizot
has late this night given in his resignation, and this was an
improvised illumination.
'I and my father had turned with the crowd, and were close behind
the second troop of vagabonds. Joy was on every face. I remarked
to papa that "I would not have missed the scene for anything, I
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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 Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche: PEOPLES AND COUNTRIES
240. I HEARD, once again for the first time, Richard Wagner's
overture to the Mastersinger: it is a piece of magnificent,
gorgeous, heavy, latter-day art, which has the pride to
presuppose two centuries of music as still living, in order that
it may be understood:--it is an honour to Germans that such a
pride did not miscalculate! What flavours and forces, what
seasons and climes do we not find mingled in it! It impresses us
at one time as ancient, at another time as foreign, bitter, and
too modern, it is as arbitrary as it is pompously traditional, it
is not infrequently roguish, still oftener rough and coarse--it
Beyond Good and Evil |
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 Witch, et. al by Anton Chekhov: as though he were talking of tobacco or porridge, while I started
with surprise. I knew Agafya. . . . She was quite a young peasant
woman of nineteen or twenty, who had been married not more than a
year before to a railway signalman, a fine young fellow. She
lived in the village, and her husband came home there from the
line every night.
"Your goings on with the women will lead to trouble, my boy,"
said I.
"Well, may be . . . ."
And after a moment's thought Savka added:
"I've said so to the women; they won't heed me. . . .They don't
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