| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Turn of the Screw by Henry James: She looked immensely scared again. "The child?"
"Heaven forbid! The man. He wants to appear to THEM."
That he might was an awful conception, and yet, somehow, I could
keep it at bay; which, moreover, as we lingered there,
was what I succeeded in practically proving. I had an absolute
certainty that I should see again what I had already seen,
but something within me said that by offering myself bravely
as the sole subject of such experience, by accepting, by inviting,
by surmounting it all, I should serve as an expiatory victim
and guard the tranquility of my companions. The children,
in especial, I should thus fence about and absolutely save.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Massimilla Doni by Honore de Balzac: The Frenchman, understanding from this little stir, how important this
justly famous chorus was in the opinion of the house, listened with
devout attention.
The audience, with one accord, shouted for its repetition.
"I feel as if I were celebrating the liberation of Italy," thought a
Milanese.
"Such music lifts up bowed heads, and revives hope in the most
torpid," said a man from the Romagna.
"In this scene," said Massimilla, whose emotion was evident, "science
is set aside. Inspiration, alone, dictated this masterpiece; it rose
from the composer's soul like a cry of love! As to the accompaniment,
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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 Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: us a little guard, and we had a soldier with a kind of half-pike,
who stood sentinel at our door, to whom we allowed a pint of rice
and a piece of money about the value of three-pence per day, so
that our goods were kept very safe.
The fair or mart usually kept at this place had been over some
time; however, we found that there were three or four junks in the
river, and two ships from Japan, with goods which they had bought
in China, and were not gone away, having some Japanese merchants on
shore.
The first thing our old Portuguese pilot did for us was to get us
acquainted with three missionary Romish priests who were in the
Robinson Crusoe |
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 Alcibiades I by Plato: mischievous?
ALCIBIADES: Yes.
SOCRATES: And most mischievous and most disgraceful when having to do with
the greatest matters?
ALCIBIADES: By far.
SOCRATES: And can there be any matters greater than the just, the
honourable, the good, and the expedient?
ALCIBIADES: There cannot be.
SOCRATES: And these, as you were saying, are what perplex you?
ALCIBIADES: Yes.
SOCRATES: But if you are perplexed, then, as the previous argument has
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