| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Madam How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley: now.
The sea?
Yes. The sea was once--and that not so very long ago--right up
here, beyond Reading. This is the uppermost end of the great
Thames valley, which must have been an estuary--a tide flat, like
the mouth of the Severn, with the sea eating along at the foot of
all the hills. And if the land sunk only some fifty feet,--which
is a very little indeed, child, in this huge, ever-changing
world,--then the tide would come up to Reading again, and the
greater part of London and the county of Middlesex be drowned in
salt water.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from King Henry VI by William Shakespeare: NORTHUMBERLAND.
Plantagenet, for all the claim thou lay'st,
Think not that Henry shall be so depos'd.
WARWICK.
Depos'd he shall be, in despite of all.
NORTHUMBERLAND.
Thou art deceiv'd; 't is not thy southern power,
Of Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk, nor of Kent,
Which makes thee thus presumptuous and proud,
Can set the duke up in despite of me.
CLIFFORD.
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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 Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane: Ha, ha, lookut her!"
She lurched forward and put her red and seamed hands upon her
daughter's face. She bent down and peered keenly up into the eyes
of the girl.
"Oh, she's jes' dessame as she ever was, ain' she? She's her
mudder's purty darlin' yit, ain' she? Lookut her, Jimmie! Come
here, fer Gawd's sake, and lookut her."
The loud, tremendous sneering of the mother brought the
denizens of the Rum Alley tenement to their doors. Women came in
the hallways. Children scurried to and fro.
"What's up? Dat Johnson party on anudder tear?"
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets |
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 Ann Veronica by H. G. Wells: view. I don't quite know why. But this is a great lark, Ann
Veronica! This turns life into a glorious adventure!"
"Ah!" she cried in triumph.
"I shall have to give up biology, anyhow. I've always had a
sneaking desire for the writing-trade. That is what I must do.
I can."
"Of course you can."
"And biology was beginning to bore me a bit. One research is
very like another. . . . Latterly I've been doing things. . . .
Creative work appeals to me wonderfully. Things seem to come
rather easily. . . . But that, and that sort of thing, is just a
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