| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield: another.
Strange faces smiled at Leila--sweetly, vaguely. Strange voices answered,
"Of course, my dear." But Leila felt the girls didn't really see her.
They were looking towards the men. Why didn't the men begin? What were
they waiting for? There they stood, smoothing their gloves, patting their
glossy hair and smiling among themselves. Then, quite suddenly, as if they
had only just made up their minds that that was what they had to do, the
men came gliding over the parquet. There was a joyful flutter among the
girls. A tall, fair man flew up to Meg, seized her programme, scribbled
something; Meg passed him on to Leila. "May I have the pleasure?" He
ducked and smiled. There came a dark man wearing an eyeglass, then cousin
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Egmont by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe: he urgently recommends to me the maintenance of the true faith? That he
will not hear of tranquility and order being restored at the expense of
religion? Even in the provinces, does he not maintain spies, unknown to
us, in order to ascertain who inclines to the new doctrines? Has he not, to
our astonishment, named to us this or that individual residing in our very
neighbourhood, who, without its being known, was obnoxious to the
charge of heresy? Does he not enjoin harshness and severity? and am I to
be lenient? Am I to recommend for his adoption measures of indulgence
and toleration? Should I not thus lose all credit with him, and at once
forfeit his confidence?
Machiavel. I know it. The king commands and puts you in full possession
Egmont |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin: Fire Company, still subsists and flourishes, tho' the first members
are all deceas'd but myself and one, who is older by a year than I am.
The small fines that have been paid by members for absence at the monthly
meetings have been apply'd to the purchase of fire-engines, ladders,
fire-hooks, and other useful implements for each company, so that I
question whether there is a city in the world better provided with
the means of putting a stop to beginning conflagrations; and, in fact,
since these institutions, the city has never lost by fire more
than one or two houses at a time, and the flames have often been
extinguished before the house in which they began has been half consumed.
In 1739 arrived among us from Ireland the Reverend Mr. Whitefield,
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin |
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 At the Sign of the Cat & Racket by Honore de Balzac: returned home even more undecided than she had been before consulting
them. She now ventured to go to the house in the Rue du Colombier,
intending to confide her troubles to her father and mother; for she
was like a sick man who, in his desperate plight, tries every
prescription, and even puts faith in old wives' remedies.
The old people received their daughter with an effusiveness that
touched her deeply. Her visit brought them some little change, and
that to them was worth a fortune. For the last four years they had
gone their way like navigators without a goal or a compass. Sitting by
the chimney corner, they would talk over their disasters under the old
law of /maximum/, of their great investments in cloth, of the way they
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