| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Sanitary and Social Lectures by Charles Kingsley: concentrating in one place, and upon one object, men, genius,
information, and wealth, they can conquer new-found lands by arts
instead of arms; they can beget new nations; and replenish and
subdue the earth from pole to pole.
Meanwhile, there is one fact about employers, in all cities which
I know, which may seem commonplace to you, but which to me is very
significant. Whatsoever business they may do in the city, they
take good care, if possible, not to live in it. As soon as a man
gets wealthy nowadays, his first act is to take to himself a villa
in the country. Do I blame him? Certainly not. It is an act of
common sense. He finds that the harder he works, the more he
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Lock and Key Library by Julian Hawthorne, Ed.: while I changed my dress, I had scarcely time even to regret the
quiet happiness of the week that was past. In the evening we
danced in the great hall. I had two valses with Alan. During a
pause for breath, I found that we were standing near the fireplace,
on the very spot where he and George had stood on the previous
afternoon. The recollection made me involuntarily glance up at his
face. It looked sad and worried, and the thought suddenly struck
me that his extravagant spirits of the night before, and even his
quieter, careful cheerfulness of to-night, had been but artificial
moods at best. He turned, and finding my eyes fixed on him, at
once plunged into conversation, discussed the peculiarities of one
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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 The Man against the Sky by Edwin Arlington Robinson: A flame where nothing seems
To burn but flame itself, by nothing fed;
And while it all went out,
Not even the faint anodyne of doubt
May then have eased a painful going down
From pictured heights of power and lost renown,
Revealed at length to his outlived endeavor
Remote and unapproachable forever;
And at his heart there may have gnawed
Sick memories of a dead faith foiled and flawed
And long dishonored by the living death
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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 Euthyphro by Plato: reputation of impiety. Here is one answer to the question, 'Why Socrates
was put to death,' suggested by the way. Another is conveyed in the words,
'The Athenians do not care about any man being thought wise until he begins
to make other men wise; and then for some reason or other they are angry:'
which may be said to be the rule of popular toleration in most other
countries, and not at Athens only. In the course of the argument Socrates
remarks that the controversial nature of morals and religion arises out of
the difficulty of verifying them. There is no measure or standard to which
they can be referred.
The next definition, 'Piety is that which is loved of the gods,' is
shipwrecked on a refined distinction between the state and the act,
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