| 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: Pyrotechnist made a low bow, and marched down to the end of the
garden. He had six attendants with him, each of whom carried a
lighted torch at the end of a long pole.
It was certainly a magnificent display.
Whizz! Whizz! went the Catherine Wheel, as she spun round and
round. Boom! Boom! went the Roman Candle. Then the Squibs danced
all over the place, and the Bengal Lights made everything look
scarlet. "Good-bye," cried the Fire-balloon, as he soared away,
dropping tiny blue sparks. Bang! Bang! answered the Crackers, who
were enjoying themselves immensely. Every one was a great success
except the Remarkable Rocket. He was so damp with crying that he
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Master of the World by Jules Verne: Erie.
My business now was to learn if I would be allowed to go on deck here
where the machine had landed. I attempted to raise the hatchway. It
was fastened.
"Ah!" said I, "am I to be kept here until the 'Terror' recommences
its travels?" Was not that, indeed, the only time when escape was
hopeless?
My impatience and anxiety may be appreciated. I knew not how long
this halt might continue.
I had not a quarter of an hour to wait. A noise of bars being removed
came to my ear. The hatchway was raised from above. A wave of light
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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 Memorabilia by Xenophon: strengthened towards courage. It is clear, for instance, that
Scythians or Thracians would not venture to take shield and spear and
contend with Lacedaemonians; and it is equally evident that
Lacedaemonians would demur to entering the lists of battle against
Thracians if limited to their light shields and javelins, or against
Scythians without some weapon more familiar than their bows and
arrows.[2] And as far as I can see, this principle holds generally:
the natural differences of one man from another may be compensated by
artificial progress, the result of care and attention. All which
proves clearly that whether nature has endowed us with keener or
blunter sensibilities, the duty of all alike is to learn and practise
The Memorabilia |
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 Padre Ignacio by Owen Wister: hand, a dear and tender caress; a distant life, by him long left behind,
seemed to be drawing the exile homeward from these alien shores. As the
time for his letters and packets drew near, the eyes of Padre Ignacio
would be often fixed wistfully upon the harbor, watching for the
barkentine. Sometimes, as to-day, he mistook other sails for hers, but
hers he mistook never. That Pacific Ocean, which, for all its hues and
jeweled mists, he could not learn to love, had, since long before his
day, been furrowed by the keels of Spain. Traders, and adventurers, and
men of God had passed along this coast, planting their colonies and
cloisters; but it was not his ocean. In the year that we, a thin strip of
patriots away over on the Atlantic edge of the continent, declared
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