| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from An Unsocial Socialist by George Bernard Shaw: announced, and he was in their presence before they had time to
conceal the expression of consternation his name brought into
their faces.
"I have come to say good-bye," he said. "I find that I must go to
town by the four o'clock train to push my arrangements in person;
the telegrams I have received breathe nothing but delay. Have you
seen the 'Times'?"
"I have indeed," said Sir Charles, emphatically.
"You are in some other paper too, and will be in half-a-dozen
more in the course of the next fortnight. Men who have committed
themselves to an opinion are always in trouble with the
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Plain Tales from the Hills by Rudyard Kipling: what they do to printed papers. These papers deal with all sorts
of things--from the payment of Rs. 200 to a "secret service"
native, up to rebukes administered to Vakils and Motamids of Native
States, and rather brusque letters to Native Princes, telling them
to put their houses in order, to refrain from kidnapping women, or
filling offenders with pounded red pepper, and eccentricities of
that kind. Of course, these things could never be made public,
because Native Princes never err officially, and their States are,
officially, as well administered as Our territories. Also, the
private allowances to various queer people are not exactly matters
to put into newspapers, though they give quaint reading sometimes.
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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 Blix by Frank Norris: the game.
Unusually talkative and restless, he had suddenly hardened and
stiffened to a repressed, tense calm; speechless, almost rigid in
his chair. Excitable under even ordinary circumstances, his every
faculty was now keyed to its highest pitch. The nervous strain
upon him was like the stretching and tightening of harp-strings,
too taut to quiver. The color left his face, and the moisture
fled his lips. His projected article, his promise to Blix, all
the jollity of the afternoon, all thought of time or place, faded
away as the one indomitable, evil passion of the man leaped into
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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 Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle: for he saw the wisdom of that which the knight advised,
and that this was his only chance of safety.
Queen Eleanor walked in her royal garden, amid the roses that
bloomed sweetly, and with her walked six of her ladies-in-waiting,
chattering blithely together. Of a sudden a man leaped
up to the top of the wall from the other side, and then,
hanging for a moment, dropped lightly upon the grass within.
All the ladies-in-waiting shrieked at the suddenness of his coming,
but the man ran to the Queen and kneeled at her feet, and she
saw that it was Robin Hood.
"Why, how now, Robin!" cried she, "dost thou dare to come
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood |
