| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Alcibiades I by Plato: why I, unlike the rest of them, have not gone away, and what can be my
motive in remaining.
ALCIBIADES: Perhaps, Socrates, you are not aware that I was just going to
ask you the very same question--What do you want? And what is your motive
in annoying me, and always, wherever I am, making a point of coming?
(Compare Symp.) I do really wonder what you mean, and should greatly like
to know.
SOCRATES: Then if, as you say, you desire to know, I suppose that you will
be willing to hear, and I may consider myself to be speaking to an auditor
who will remain, and will not run away?
ALCIBIADES: Certainly, let me hear.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from In the South Seas by Robert Louis Stevenson: house, having gained the point and lost the audience. It was
surely fortunate that there was no one drunk; but, drunk or sober,
where else would a scene so irritating have concluded without
blows?
The last stage and glory of this auspicious day was of our own
providing - the second and positively the last appearance of the
phantoms. All round the church, groups sat outside, in the night,
where they could see nothing; perhaps ashamed to enter, certainly
finding some shadowy pleasure in the mere proximity. Within, about
one-half of the great shed was densely packed with people. In the
midst, on the royal dais, the lantern luminously smoked; chance
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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 Touchstone by Edith Wharton: by the semi-publicity it gave her. It was the kind of book that
makes elderly ladies lower their voices and call each other "my
dear" when they furtively discuss it; and Glennard exulted in the
superior knowledge of the world that enabled him to take as a
matter of course sentiments over which the university shook its
head. Still more delightful was it to hear Mrs. Aubyn waken the
echoes of academic drawing-rooms with audacities surpassing those
of her printed page. Her intellectual independence gave a touch
of comradeship to their intimacy, prolonging the illusion of
college friendships based on a joyous interchange of heresies.
Mrs. Aubyn and Glennard represented to each other the augur's wink
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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 Phantasmagoria and Other Poems by Lewis Carroll: Ah me! I see him on the cliff!
Farewell, farewell to hope,
If he should look this way, and if
He's got his telescope!
To whatsoever place I flee,
My odious rival follows me!
For every night, and everywhere,
I meet him out at dinner;
And when I've found some charming fair,
And vowed to die or win her,
The wretch (he's thin and I am stout)
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