| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from 'Twixt Land & Sea by Joseph Conrad: Jasper could not help smiling. And the lieutenant had gone on the
bridge, saying to himself:
"You wait! I shall spoil the taste of those sweet kisses for you.
When you hear of Lieutenant Heemskirk in the future that name won't
bring a smile on your lips, I swear. You are delivered into my
hands."
And this possibility had come about without any planning, one could
almost say naturally, as if events had mysteriously shaped
themselves to fit the purposes of a dark passion. The most astute
scheming could not have served Heemskirk better. It was given to
him to taste a transcendental, an incredible perfection of
'Twixt Land & Sea |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Profits of Religion by Upton Sinclair: with peculiar intimacy:
I read that Lady Yarmouth (my most religious and gracious King's
favorite) sold a bishopric to a clergyman for 5000 pounds. (She
betted him the 5000 pounds that he would not be made a bishop,
and he lost, and paid her.) Was he the only prelate of his time
led up by such hands for consecration? As I peep into George II's
St. James, I see crowds of cassocks pushing up the back-stairs of
the ladies of the court; stealthy clergy slipping purses into
their laps; that godless old king yawning under his canopy in his
Chapel Royal, as the chaplain before him is discoursing.
Discoursing about what?--About righteousness and judgment? Whilst
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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 $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories by Mark Twain: or the future or the conditional or the unconditional when it is
engaged in some other line of business--its tail will give it away.
I found out all these things by myself, without a teacher.
I selected the verb AMARE, TO LOVE. Not for any personal reason,
for I am indifferent about verbs; I care no more for one verb than
for another, and have little or no respect for any of them; but in
foreign languages you always begin with that one. Why, I don't know.
It is merely habit, I suppose; the first teacher chose it,
Adam was satisfied, and there hasn't been a successor since with
originality enough to start a fresh one. For they ARE a pretty
limited lot, you will admit that? Originality is not in their line;
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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 Madam How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley: once more. And then how, perhaps, a rabbit came by, and ate the
clover, and the grain of mineral became part of the rabbit; and
then how a hawk killed that rabbit, and ate it, and so the grain
became part of the hawk; and how the farmer shot the hawk, and it
fell perchance into a stream, and was carried down into the sea;
and when its body decayed, the little grain sank through the
water, and was mingled with the mud at the bottom of the sea. But
do its wanderings stop there? Not so, my child. Nothing upon
this earth, as I told you once before, continues in one stay.
That grain of mineral might stay at the bottom of the sea a
thousand or ten thousand years, and yet the time would come when
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