| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Economist by Xenophon: function as inspectors is to praise the man whose acts are law-
abiding, or to mulct some other who offends against the law.
Accordingly, I bade her believe that she, the mistress, was herself to
play the part of guardian of the laws to her whole household,
examining whenever it seemed good to her, and passing in review the
several chattels, just as the officer in command of a garrison[16]
musters and reviews his men. She must apply her scrutiny and see that
everything was well, even as the Senate[17] tests the condition of the
Knights and of their horses.[18] Like a queen, she must bestow,
according to the power vested in her, praise and honour on the well-
deserving, but blame and chastisement on him who stood in need
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Reef by Edith Wharton: The figure in the doorway came forward and Darrow, looking
up, found himself face to face with Sophy Viner. They stood
still, a yard or two apart, and looked at each other without
speaking.
As they paused there, a shadow fell across one of the
terrace windows, and Owen Leath stepped whistling into the
room. In his rough shooting clothes, with the glow of
exercise under his fair skin, he looked extraordinarily
light-hearted and happy. Darrow, with a quick side-glance,
noticed this, and perceived also that the glow on the
youth's cheek had deepened suddenly to red. He too stopped
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: a perpetual intercourse of buying and selling, and dealing upon
credit, where fraud is permitted and connived at, or has no law
to punish it, the honest dealer is always undone, and the knave
gets the advantage. I remember, when I was once interceding with
the emperor for a criminal who had wronged his master of a great
sum of money, which he had received by order and ran away with;
and happening to tell his majesty, by way of extenuation, that it
was only a breach of trust, the emperor thought it monstrous in
me to offer as a defence the greatest aggravation of the crime;
and truly I had little to say in return, farther than the common
answer, that different nations had different customs; for, I
Gulliver's Travels |
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 Off on a Comet by Jules Verne: "What do you mean?" was the eager inquiry.
"I mean the _Dobryna_'s yawl," answered the lieutenant;
"and I have no doubt that the wind would carry her rapidly
along the ice."
The idea seemed admirable. Lieutenant Procope was well aware to what
marvelous perfection the Americans had brought their sail-sledges,
and had heard how in the vast prairies of the United States
they had been known to outvie the speed of an express train,
occasionally attaining a rate of more than a hundred miles an hour.
The wind was still blowing hard from the south, and assuming
that the yawl could be propelled with a velocity of about fifteen
|
