| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Rescue by Joseph Conrad: distinct, very close, full of concern.
"You must stoop low. Lower yet."
The stagnant blood of her body began to pulsate languidly. She
stooped low--lower yet--so low that she had to sink on her knees,
and then became aware of a faint smell of wood smoke mingled with
the confused murmur of agitated voices. This came to her through
an opening no higher than her head in her kneeling posture, and
no wider than the breadth of two stakes. Lingard was saying in a
tone of distress:
"I couldn't get any of them to unbar the gate."
She was unable to make a sound.--"Are you there?" Lingard asked,
The Rescue |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland by Olive Schreiner: Unknown that lies beyond us we know of no otherwise than through its
manifestation in our own hearts; it works no otherwise upon the sons of men
than through man. And shall I feel no bond binding me to the men to come,
and desire no good or beauty for them--I, who am what I am, and enjoy what
I enjoy, because for countless ages in the past men have lived and
laboured, who lived not for themselves alone, and counted no costs? Would
the great statue, the great poem, the great reform ever be accomplished, if
men counted the cost and created for their own lives alone? And no man
liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. You cannot tell me not to
love the men who shall be after me; a soft voice within me, I know not
what, cries out ever, 'Live for them as for your own children.' When in
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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 Complete Poems of Longfellow by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Wherein were written down
The names of all who had died
In the convent, since it was edified.
And there they found,
Just as the old monk said,
That on a certain day and date,
One hundred years before,
Had gone forth from the convent gate
The Monk Felix, and never more
Had entered that sacred door.
He had been counted among the dead!
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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 Rewards and Fairies by Rudyard Kipling: waved French flags, while Captain Bompard and his officers -
yes, and some of the men - speechified to all and sundry about
war with England. They shouted, "Down with England!" -
"Down with Washington!" - "Hurrah for France and the
Republic!" I couldn't make sense of it. I wanted to get out from
that crunch of swords and petticoats and sit in a field. One of the
gentlemen said to me, "Is that a genuine cap o' Liberty you're
wearing?" 'Twas Aunt Cecile's red one, and pretty near wore
out. "Oh yes!" I says, "straight from France." "I'll give you a
shilling for it," he says, and with that money in my hand and my
fiddle under my arm I squeezed past the entry-port and went
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