| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Philosophy 4 by Owen Wister: of pink and blue that a driver on a passing car leaned to look after
them with a smile and a butcher hailed them with loud brotherhood from
his cart. They turned a corner, and from a long way off came the sight
of the tower of Memorial Hall. Plain above all intervening tenements
and foliage it rose. Over there beneath its shadow were examinations
and Oscar. It caught Billy's roving eye, and he nudged Bertie, pointing
silently to it. "Ha, ha!" sang Bertie. And beneath his light whip the
gelding sprang forward into its stride.
The clocks of Massachusetts struck eleven. Oscar rose doubtfully from
his chair in Billy's study. Again he looked into Billy's bedroom and at
the empty bed. Then he went for a moment and watched the still forcibly
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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 Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin: had not. They met that day the eleven poor farmers above mentioned,
and killed ten of them. The one who escap'd inform'd that his and
his companions' guns would not go off, the priming being wet with
the rain.
The next day being fair, we continu'd our march, and arriv'd at
the desolated Gnadenhut. There was a saw-mill near, round which were
left several piles of boards, with which we soon hutted ourselves;
an operation the more necessary at that inclement season, as we
had no tents. Our first work was to bury more effectually the dead
we found there, who had been half interr'd by the country people.
The next morning our fort was plann'd and mark'd out, the circumference
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: infatuate deeds.'
Therewith he went forth from out the fair-lying halls, and
came to Peiraeus who received him gladly. Then all the
wooers, looking one at the other, provoked Telemachus to
anger, laughing at his guests. And thus some one of the
haughty youths would speak:
'Telemachus, no man is more luckless than thou in his
guests, seeing thou keepest such a filthy wanderer,
whosoever he be, always longing for bread and wine, and
skilled in no peaceful work nor any deed of war, but a mere
burden of the earth. And this other fellow again must stand
The Odyssey |
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 Falk by Joseph Conrad: sound. We had had several passages of arms. It
took me all I knew to guard the interests of my
owners--whom, nota bene, I had never seen--while
Siegers (who had made their acquaintance some
years before, during a business tour in Australia)
pretended to the knowledge of their innermost
minds, and, in the character of "our very good
friends," threw them perpetually at my head.
He looked at me with a jaundiced eye (there was
no love lost between us), and declared at once that
it was strange, very strange. His pronunciation
Falk |
