| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Last War: A World Set Free by H. G. Wells: chiefly with himself and his fellow man, trading, bargaining,
law-making, propitiating, enslaving, conquering, exterminating,
and every little increment in Power, he turned at once and always
turns to the purposes of this confused elaborate struggle to
socialise. To incorporate and comprehend his fellow men into a
community of purpose became the last and greatest of his
instincts. Already before the last polished phase of the stone
age was over he had become a political animal. He made
astonishingly far-reaching discoveries within himself, first of
counting and then of writing and making records, and with that
his town communities began to stretch out to dominion; in the
The Last War: A World Set Free |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Breaking Point by Mary Roberts Rinehart: When he saw that she was only puzzled and thinking back, he knew
she could not help him.
"Never mind," he said. "I was feeling about for some cause.
That's all."
He was satisfied that Lucy knew no more than he did of David's
visitor, and that David had kept his own counsel ever since. But
the sense of impending disaster that had come with the letter did
not leave him. He went through his evening office hours almost
mechanically, with a part of his mind busy on the puzzle. How did
it affect the course of action he had marked out? Wasn't it even
more necessary than ever now to go to Walter Wheeler and tell him
The Breaking Point |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay: shapes, and each one was different. The valley directly opposite
them was filled with rolling mist.
Sarclash was a mighty mountain mass in the shape of a horseshoe. Its
two ends pointed west, and were separated from each other by a mile
or more of empty space. The northern end became the ridge on which
they stood. The southern end was the long line of cliffs on that
part of the mountain where Haunte's cave was situated. The
connecting curve was the steep slope they had just traversed. One
peak of Sarclash was invisible.
In the south-west many mountains raised their heads. In addition, a
few summits, which must have been of extraordinary height, appeared
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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 Hated Son by Honore de Balzac: schemes employed to deceive her mother, whose severity seemed great,
brought back to her the soulful joys of that innocent and mutual and
sanctioned love; sometimes a rendezvous beneath the linden, where
speech could be freer than before witnesses; sometimes a furtive
clasp, or a stolen kiss,--in short, all the naive instalments of a
passion that did not pass the bounds of modesty. Reliving in her
vision those delightful days when she seemed to have too much
happiness, she fancied that she kissed, in the void, that fine young
face with the glowing eyes, that rosy mouth that spoke so well of
love. Yes, she had loved Chaverny, poor apparently; but what treasures
had she not discovered in that soul as tender as it was strong!
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