| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Selected Writings of Guy De Maupassant by Guy De Maupassant: bread, nor the strawberries were touched.
On the seventh of July I renewed the same experiment, with the
same results, and on July 8 I left out the water and the milk and
nothing was touched.
Lastly, on July 9 I put only water and milk on my table, taking
care to wrap up the bottles in white muslin and to tie down the
stoppers. Then I rubbed my lips, my beard, and my hands with
pencil lead, and went to bed.
Deep slumber seized me, soon followed by a terrible awakening. I
had not moved, and my sheets were not marked. I rushed to the
table. The muslin round the bottles remained intact; I undid the
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne: read on as follows:
'To have the fear of God before our eyes, and, in our mutual dealings with
each other, to govern our actions by the eternal measures of right and
wrong:--The first of these will comprehend the duties of religion;--the
second, those of morality, which are so inseparably connected together,
that you cannot divide these two tables, even in imagination, (tho' the
attempt is often made in practice) without breaking and mutually destroying
them both.
I said the attempt is often made; and so it is;--there being nothing more
common than to see a man who has no sense at all of religion, and indeed
has so much honesty as to pretend to none, who would take it as the
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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 Common Sense by Thomas Paine: wherefore, though we have been wise enough to shut and lock a door
against absolute monarchy, we at the same time have been foolish
enough to put the crown in possession of the key.
The prejudice of Englishmen in favour of their own government by king,
lords, and commons, arises as much or more from national pride than reason.
Individuals are undoubtedly safer in England than in some other countries,
but the WILL of the king is as much the LAW of the land in Britain
as in France, with this difference, that instead of proceeding directly
from his mouth, it is handed to the people under the more formidable shape
of an act of parliament. For the fate of Charles the First hath only made
kings more subtle - not more just.
Common Sense |
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 Poems by Bronte Sisters: "So said I, and still say the same;
Still, to my death, will say--
Three gods, within this little frame,
Are warring night; and day;
Heaven could not hold them all, and yet
They all are held in me;
And must be mine till I forget
My present entity!
Oh, for the time, when in my breast
Their struggles will be o'er!
Oh, for the day, when I shall rest,
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