| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Memorabilia by Xenophon: and then to have sent you away empty.
II
At another time he fell in with a man who had been chosen general and
minister of war, and thus accosted him.
Soc. Why did Homer, think you, designate Agamemnon "shepherd of the
peoples"?[1] Was it possibly to show that, even as a shepherd must
care for his sheep and see that they are safe and have all things
needful, and that the objects of their rearing be secured, so also
must a general take care that his soldiers are safe and have their
supplies, and attain the objects of their soldiering? Which last is
that they may get the mastery of their enemies, and so add to their
The Memorabilia |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Essays of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: his story, not so much to the horrors of the steerage as to the
habitual comfort of the working classes. One foggy, frosty December
evening, I encountered on Liberton Hill, near Edinburgh, an Irish
labourer trudging homeward from the fields. Our roads lay together,
and it was natural that we should fall into talk. He was covered
with mud; an inoffensive, ignorant creature, who thought the Atlantic
Cable was a secret contrivance of the masters the better to oppress
labouring mankind; and I confess I was astonished to learn that he
had nearly three hundred pounds in the bank. But this man had
travelled over most of the world, and enjoyed wonderful opportunities
on some American railroad, with two dollars a shift and double pay on
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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 Paz by Honore de Balzac: walk in the open air, lightly dressed in spite of the cold, but
without being able to cool the fire in his cheeks or on his brow.
"I thought you had a noble soul,"--the words still rang in his ears.
"A year ago," he said to himself, "she thought me a hero who could
fight the Russians single-handed!"
He thought of leaving the hotel Laginski, and taking service with the
spahis and getting killed in Africa, but the same great fear checked
him. "Without me," he thought, "what would become of them? they would
soon be ruined. Poor countess! what a horrible life it would be for
her if she were reduced to even thirty thousand francs a year. No,
since all is lost for me in this world,--courage! I will keep on as I
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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 Puck of Pook's Hill by Rudyard Kipling: None of the People of the Hills could tell me anything
about him, and I supposed that he had left England.'
Puck turned, lay on his other elbow, and thought for a
long time.
'Let's see,' he said at last. 'It must have been some few
years later - a year or two before the Conquest, I think -
that I came back to Pook's Hill here, and one evening I
heard old Hobden talking about Weland's Ford.'
'If you mean old Hobden the hedger, he's only seventy-two.
He told me so himself,' said Dan. 'He's a intimate
friend of ours.'
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