| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Happy Prince and Other Tales by Oscar Wilde: him, and the tears were not yet dry in his beautiful eyes.
"Be happy," cried the Nightingale, "be happy; you shall have your
red rose. I will build it out of music by moonlight, and stain it
with my own heart's-blood. All that I ask of you in return is that
you will be a true lover, for Love is wiser than Philosophy, though
she is wise, and mightier than Power, though he is mighty. Flame-
coloured are his wings, and coloured like flame is his body. His
lips are sweet as honey, and his breath is like frankincense."
The Student looked up from the grass, and listened, but he could
not understand what the Nightingale was saying to him, for he only
knew the things that are written down in books.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Essays of Francis Bacon by Francis Bacon: figure; whereas in thoughts they lie but as in
packs. Neither is this second fruit of friendship, in
opening the understanding, restrained only to
such friends as are able to give a man counsel;
(they indeed are best;) but even without that, a
man learneth of himself, and bringeth his own
thoughts to light, and whetteth his wits as against
a stone, which itself cuts not. In a word, a man
were better relate himself to a statua, or picture,
than to suffer his thoughts to pass in smother.
Add now, to make this second fruit of friendship
Essays of Francis Bacon |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Misalliance by George Bernard Shaw: are folded garden chairs flung anyhow against the pipes. In the side
walls are two doors: one near the hat stand, leading to the interior
of the house, the other on the opposite side and at the other end,
leading to the vestibule._
_There is no solid furniture except a sideboard which stands against
the wall between the vestibule door and the pavilion, a small writing
table with a blotter, a rack for telegram forms and stationery, and a
wastepaper basket, standing out in the hall near the sideboard, and a
lady's worktable, with two chairs at it, towards the other side of the
lounge. The writing table has also two chairs at it. On the
sideboard there is a tantalus, liqueur bottles, a syphon, a glass jug
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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 Witch, et. al by Anton Chekhov: him he would not have worked at all, but would have simply sat on
the stove and talked. He talked to his son at great length about
certain enemies of his, complained of the insults he said he had
to put up with every day from the neighbours, and it was tedious
to listen to him.
"Yes," he would say, standing with his arms akimbo, "yes. . . . A
week after the Exaltation of the Cross I sold my hay willingly at
thirty kopecks a pood. . . . Well and good. . . . So you see I
was taking the hay in the morning with a good will; I was
interfering with no one. In an unlucky hour I see the village
elder, Antip Syedelnikov, coming out of the tavern. 'Where are
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