| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Daisy Miller by Henry James: If this is improper, Mrs. Walker," she pursued, "then I am all improper,
and you must give me up. Goodbye; I hope you'll have a lovely ride!"
and, with Mr. Giovanelli, who made a triumphantly obsequious salute,
she turned away.
Mrs. Walker sat looking after her, and there were tears in
Mrs. Walker's eyes. "Get in here, sir," she said to Winterbourne,
indicating the place beside her. The young man answered that he felt
bound to accompany Miss Miller, whereupon Mrs. Walker declared that
if he refused her this favor she would never speak to him again.
She was evidently in earnest. Winterbourne overtook Daisy and
her companion, and, offering the young girl his hand, told her
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Woman and Labour by Olive Schreiner: rapid means of intercommunication, printing, and the consequent diffusion
of political and social information throughout a territory, it has become
possible, for the first time, for all adults in a large community to keep
themselves closely informed on all national affairs; and in every highly-
civilised state the ordinary male has been almost compelled to take his
share, however small, in the duties and labours of legislation and
government. Thus there has opened before the mass of men a vast new sphere
of labour undreamed of by their ancestors. In every direction the change
which material civilisation has wrought, while it has militated against
that comparatively small section of males who have nothing to offer society
but the expenditure of their untrained muscular energy (inflicting much and
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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 Essays & Lectures by Oscar Wilde: essentially disunited character of the primitive Greek tribes; and
he argues from the line 'O'er many islands and all Argos ruled,' as
applied to Agamemnon, that his forces must have been partially
naval, 'for Agamemnon's was a continental power, and he could not
have been master of any but the adjacent islands, and these would
not be many but through the possession of a fleet.'
Anticipating in some measure the comparative method of research, he
argues from the fact of the more barbarous Greek tribes, such as
the AEtolians and Acarnanians, still carrying arms in his own day,
that this custom was the case originally over the whole country.
'The fact,' he says, 'that the people in these parts of Hellas are
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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 Concerning Christian Liberty by Martin Luther: you and to call you to mind, most blessed father Leo. In truth,
since you alone are everywhere considered as being the cause of
my engaging in war, I cannot at any time fail to remember you;
and although I have been compelled by the causeless raging of
your impious flatterers against me to appeal from your seat to a
future council--fearless of the futile decrees of your
predecessors Pius and Julius, who in their foolish tyranny
prohibited such an action--yet I have never been so alienated in
feeling from your Blessedness as not to have sought with all my
might, in diligent prayer and crying to God, all the best gifts
for you and for your see. But those who have hitherto endeavoured
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