| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne: it was cause enough that the world was not worthy to be any
longer trodden by his feet. He himself, on the other hand, with
characteristic humility, avowed his belief that if Providence
should see fit to remove him, it would be because of his own
unworthiness to perform its humblest mission here on earth. With
all this difference of opinion as to the cause of his decline,
there could be no question of the fact. His form grew emaciated;
his voice, though still rich and sweet, had a certain melancholy
prophecy of decay in it; he was often observed, on any slight
alarm or other sudden accident, to put his hand over his heart
with first a flush and then a paleness, indicative of pain.
The Scarlet Letter |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Within the Tides by Joseph Conrad: sort, to the Rajah, or the head-man, or the principal trader; and
on the strength of that gift, ask for a house, posing mysteriously
as a very special trader. He would spin them no end of yarns, live
on the fat of the land, for a while, and then do some mean swindle
or other - or else they would get tired of him and ask him to quit.
And he would go off meekly with an air of injured innocence. Funny
life. Yet, he never got hurt somehow. I've heard of the Rajah of
Dongala giving him fifty dollars' worth of trade goods and paying
his passage in a prau only to get rid of him. Fact. And observe
that nothing prevented the old fellow having Bamtz's throat cut and
the carcase thrown into deep water outside the reefs; for who on
Within the Tides |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Art of War by Sun Tzu: your soldiers must be likened to spoilt children; they are
useless for any practical purpose.
[Li Ching once said that if you could make your soldiers
afraid of you, they would not be afraid of the enemy. Tu Mu
recalls an instance of stern military discipline which occurred
in 219 A.D., when Lu Meng was occupying the town of Chiang-ling.
He had given stringent orders to his army not to molest the
inhabitants nor take anything from them by force. Nevertheless,
a certain officer serving under his banner, who happened to be a
fellow-townsman, ventured to appropriate a bamboo hat belonging
to one of the people, in order to wear it over his regulation
The Art of War |
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 Don Quixote by Miquel de Cervantes: to him as he would have wished; and delighted beyond measure at such
intelligence he sent word to her not to leave his house on any
account, as he would very shortly return. Camilla was astonished at
Anselmo's reply, which placed her in greater perplexity than before,
for she neither dared to remain in her own house, nor yet to go to her
parents'; for in remaining her virtue was imperilled, and in going she
was opposing her husband's commands. Finally she decided upon what was
the worse course for her, to remain, resolving not to fly from the
presence of Lothario, that she might not give food for gossip to her
servants; and she now began to regret having written as she had to her
husband, fearing he might imagine that Lothario had perceived in her
Don Quixote |
