| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte: shook her head at me.
"You should have waited for my leave to descend," she said. "You
still look very pale--and so thin! Poor child!--poor girl!"
Diana had a voice toned, to my ear, like the cooing of a dove. She
possessed eyes whose gaze I delighted to encounter. Her whole face
seemed to me fill of charm. Mary's countenance was equally
intelligent--her features equally pretty; but her expression was
more reserved, and her manners, though gentle, more distant. Diana
looked and spoke with a certain authority: she had a will,
evidently. It was my nature to feel pleasure in yielding to an
authority supported like hers, and to bend, where my conscience and
Jane Eyre |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Sportsman by Xenophon: caught, the huntsman has only to begin looking for another; if not, he
must follow up the chase once more with like encouragement.
[38] Or, "whisking their tails and frisking wildly, and jostling
against one another, and leaping over one another at a great
rate." Al. "over one obstacle, and then another."
[39] Or, "this is the true line at last."
[40] Al. "with a crash of tongues."
When at length the hounds show symptoms of fatigue, and it is already
late in the day, the time has come for the huntsman to look for his
hare that lies dead-beat; nor must he wittingly leave any patch of
green or clod of earth untested.[41] Backwards and forwards he must
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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 Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, etc. by Oscar Wilde: shoulder-blades, stepped awkwardly from behind the sofa, and held
out a long, bony hand with spatulate fingers.
'Ah, a pianist! I see,' said Mr. Podgers, 'an excellent pianist,
but perhaps hardly a musician. Very reserved, very honest, and
with a great love of animals.'
'Quite true!' exclaimed the Duchess, turning to Lady Windermere,
'absolutely true! Flora keeps two dozen collie dogs at Macloskie,
and would turn our town house into a menagerie if her father would
let her.'
'Well, that is just what I do with my house every Thursday
evening,' cried Lady Windermere, laughing, 'only I like lions
|
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 On Horsemanship by Xenophon: the horse, he runs the risk of getting a knock in the face from the
animal's knee or hoof. When cleaning him he should turn his face in
the opposite direction to the horse, and planting himself well out of
the way of his leg, at an angle to his shoulder-blade, proceed to rub
him down. He will then escape all mischief, and he will be able to
clean the frog by folding back the hoof. Let him clean the hind-legs
in the same way.
The man who has to do with the horse should know, with regard to this
and all other necessary operations, that he ought to approach as
little as possible from the head or the tail to perform them; for if
the horse attempt to show vice he is master of the man in front and
On Horsemanship |
