| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Pupil by Henry James: own odd terms. Pemberton had spent his aversion to special cases
before arriving at knowledge. When at last he did arrive his
quandary was great. Against every interest he had attached
himself. They would have to meet things together. Before they
went home that evening at Nice the boy had said, clinging to his
arm:
"Well, at any rate you'll hang on to the last."
"To the last?"
"Till you're fairly beaten."
"YOU ought to be fairly beaten!" cried the young man, drawing him
closer.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Phantasmagoria and Other Poems by Lewis Carroll: They take me a walk: though tired and stiff,
To climb the heights I madly agree;
And, after a tumble or so from the cliff,
They kindly suggest the Sea.
I try the rocks, and I think it cool
That they laugh with such an excess of glee,
As I heavily slip into every pool
That skirts the cold cold Sea.
Ye Carpette Knyghte
I have a horse - a ryghte good horse -
Ne doe Y envye those
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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 The Dynamiter by Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny Van De Grift Stevenson: eyes, seemed magical, rolled and presented him a cigarette.
He took it, still seated, still without a word; staring with
all his eyes upon that apparition. Her face was warm and
rich in colour; in shape, it was that piquant triangle, so
innocently sly, so saucily attractive, so rare in our more
northern climates; her eyes were large, starry, and visited
by changing lights; her hair was partly covered by a lace
mantilla, through which her arms, bare to the shoulder,
gleamed white; her figure, full and soft in all the womanly
contours, was yet alive and active, light with excess of
life, and slender by grace of some divine proportion.
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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 On Revenues by Xenophon: of suspicion with which they are regarded by the rest of Hellas.
[2] Lit. "the cities," i.e. of the alliance, {tas summakhidas}.
I had no sooner begun my investigation than one fact presented itself
clearly to my mind, which is that the country itself is made by nature
to provide the amplest resources. And with a view to establishing the
truth of this initial proposition I will describe the physical
features of Attica.
In the first place, the extraordinary mildness of the climate is
proved by the actual products of the soil. Numerous plants which in
many parts of the world appear as stunted leafless growths are here
fruit-bearing. And as with the soil so with the sea indenting our
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