| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Market-Place by Harold Frederic: But her companion, whose big chestnut mount was pacing slowly
toward the stepping-block--how should he bring within the
compass of thought the impressions he had had of her as she
passed? There seemed to have been no memory in his mind
to prepare him for the beauty of the picture she had made.
Slender, erect, exquisitely-tailored, she had gone by like
some queen in a pageant, gracious yet unapproachable.
He stared after her, mutely bewildered at the effect she
produced upon him--until he saw that a groom had run from
the stable-yard, and was helping the divinity to dismount.
The angry thought that he might have done this himself
The Market-Place |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Village Rector by Honore de Balzac: realization of them was a practicable thing. Madame Graslin and Gerard
accompanied his carriage on horseback, and did not leave him till they
reached the junction of the high-road of Montegnac with that from
Bordeaux to Lyon. The engineer was so impatient to see the land he was
to reclaim, and Veronique was so impatient to show it to him, that
they had planned this expedition the evening before.
After bidding adieu to the kind old man, they turned off the road
across the vast plain, and skirted the mountain chain from the foot of
the rise which led to the chateau to the steep face of the Roche-Vive.
The engineer then saw plainly the shelf or barricade of rock mentioned
by Farrabesche; which forms, as it were, the lowest foundation of the
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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 Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, etc. by Oscar Wilde: on, and the wind was so high that all the windows and doors in the
old house shook and rattled. In fact, it was just such weather as
he loved. His plan of action was this. He was to make his way
quietly to Washington Otis's room, gibber at him from the foot of
the bed, and stab himself three times in the throat to the sound of
slow music. He bore Washington a special grudge, being quite aware
that it was he who was in the habit of removing the famous
Canterville blood-stain, by means of Pinkerton's Paragon Detergent.
Having reduced the reckless and foolhardy youth to a condition of
abject terror, he was then to proceed to the room occupied by the
United States Minister and his wife, and there to place a clammy
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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 Phaedo by Plato: it the personal and individual element in us, or the spiritual and
universal? Is it the principle of knowledge or of goodness, or the union
of the two? Is it the mere force of life which is determined to be, or the
consciousness of self which cannot be got rid of, or the fire of genius
which refuses to be extinguished? Or is there a hidden being which is
allied to the Author of all existence, who is because he is perfect, and to
whom our ideas of perfection give us a title to belong? Whatever answer is
given by us to these questions, there still remains the necessity of
allowing the permanence of evil, if not for ever, at any rate for a time,
in order that the wicked 'may not have too good a bargain.' For the
annihilation of evil at death, or the eternal duration of it, seem to
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