| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Europeans by Henry James: "Let me at least go with you." He went with her, and they said
nothing till they reached the gate. It was open, and they looked
down the road which was darkened over with long bosky shadows.
"Must you go straight home?" Acton asked.
But she made no answer. She said, after a moment, "Why have you
not been to see me?" He said nothing, and then she went on,
"Why don't you answer me?"
"I am trying to invent an answer," Acton confessed.
"Have you none ready?"
"None that I can tell you," he said. "But let me walk with you now."
"You may do as you like."
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Elixir of Life by Honore de Balzac: more faithful in its service than he in his duty to Bartolommeo--
he, a man with that peculiar piece of human mechanism within him
that we call a heart.
Don Juan the sceptic shut the flask again in the secret drawer in
the Gothic table--he meant to run no more risks of losing the
mysterious liquid.
Even at that solemn moment he heard the murmur of a crowd in the
gallery, a confused sound of voices, of stifled laughter and
light footfalls, and the rustling of silks--the sounds of a band
of revelers struggling for gravity. The door opened, and in came
the Prince and Don Juan's friends, the seven courtesans, and the
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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 Koran: breadth is as the breadth of the heavens and the earth, prepared for
those who believe in God and His apostles! and God's grace, He gives
it to whom He pleases, for God is Lord of mighty grace!
No accident befalls in the earth, or in yourselves, but it was in
the Book, before we created them; verily, that is easy unto God.
That ye may not vex yourselves for what ye miss, nor be overjoyed at
what He gives you; for God loves no arrogant boaster, who are
niggardly and bid men be niggardly: but whoso turns his back,
verily, God is rich, praiseworthy.
We did send our apostles with manifest signs; and we did send down
among you the Book and the balance, that men might stand by justice;
The Koran |
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 Madam How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley: that we and our forefathers have done so very ill with it. But
where the rich part, or staple, of our soils came from first it
would be very difficult to say, so often has Madam How made, and
unmade, and re-made England, and sifted her materials afresh every
time. But if you go to the Lowlands of Scotland, you may soon see
where the staple of the soil came from there, and that I was right
in saying that there were atoms of lava in every Scotch boy's
broth. Not that there were ever (as far as I know) volcanos in
Scotland or in England. Madam How has more than one string to her
bow, or two strings either; so when she pours out her lavas, she
does not always pour them out in the open air. Sometimes she
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