| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson: But the image of the emptiness of youth,
Filled with the sound of footsteps and that voice
Of discontent and rapture and despair?
So, as in darkness, from the magic lamp,
The momentary pictures gleam and fade
And perish, and the night resurges - these
Shall I remember, and then all forget.
They're pretty second-rate, but felt. I can't be bothered to copy
the other.
I have bought 314 and a half acres of beautiful land in the bush
behind Apia; when we get the house built, the garden laid, and
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Faraday as a Discoverer by John Tyndall: motion is suspended. Let us imagine the case of a liquid so mobile
that the hand may be passed through it to and fro, without
encountering any sensible resistance. It resembles the motion of a
conductor in the unexcited field of an electro-magnet. Now, let us
suppose a body placed in the liquid, or acting on it, which confers
upon it the property of viscosity; the hand would no longer move
freely. During its motion, but then only, resistance would be
encountered and overcome. Here we have rudely represented the case
of the excited magnetic field, and the result in both cases would be
substantially the same. In both cases heat would, in the end, be
generated outside of the muscle, its amount being exactly equivalent
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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 Stories From the Old Attic by Robert Harris: thoughtful, was a man of integrity who would never abuse his position
as the king's advisor to advance his own interests, even in a matter
so emotionally and biologically compelling as that before us. The
other reason is that Sir Philo was already in love with another. It
was a gentle love, like a deep river, quiet and calm on the surface
but fully substantial and powerful in its flow.
His happiness, the Lady Lucinda, though not of outward visage the
equal of Jennifrella, was handsome enough for the young knight's
daydreams. When asked what attracted him to Lucinda, he would answer
ambiguously or mutter something about the light in her eyes. What
joy he got sitting with her under a tree in the bright spring, gazing
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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 The Phoenix and the Turtle by William Shakespeare: So they lov'd, as love in twain
Had the essence but in one;
Two distincts, division none:
Number there in love was slain.
Hearts remote, yet not asunder;
Distance, and no space was seen
'Twixt the turtle and his queen;
But in them it were a wonder.
So between them love did shine,
That the turtle saw his right
Flaming in the phoenix' sight:
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