| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Pool of Blood in the Pastor's Study by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: silent and he turned back to his willows. The beauty of the
landscape about him was much too familiar a thing that he should
have felt or seen its charm. The violet hue of the distant woods,
the red gleaming of the heather-strewn moor, with its patches of
swamp from which the slow mist arose, the pretty little village with
its handsome old church and attractive rectory - Janci had known it
so long that he never stopped to realise how very charming, in its
gentle melancholy, it all was.
Also, Janci did not know that this little village of his home had
once been a flourishing city, and that an invasion of the Turks
had razed it to the ground leaving, as by a miracle, only the church
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: and was then at a small village of Phocis, Pharygae, under the
mountain now called Galate, but then Acrurium.
There Polysperchon, having set up the golden canopy, and seated
the king and his company under it, ordered Dinarchus at once to be
taken, and tortured, and put to death; and that done, gave
audience to the Athenians, who filled the place with noise and
tumult, accusing and recriminating on one another, till at last
Agnonides came forward, and requested they might all be shut up
together in one cage, and conveyed to Athens, there to decide the
controversy. At that the king could not forbear smiling, but the
company that attended, for their own amusement, Macedonians and
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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 Tapestried Chamber by Walter Scott: in their sporting dresses, looking at and criticizing the dogs
which the keepers held in readiness to attend their pastime. As
General Browne alighted, the young lord came to the gate of the
hall, and for an instant gazed, as at a stranger, upon the
countenance of his friend, on which war, with its fatigues and
its wounds, had made a great alteration. But the uncertainty
lasted no longer than till the visitor had spoken, and the hearty
greeting which followed was such as can only be exchanged betwixt
those who have passed together the merry days of careless boyhood
or early youth.
"If I could have formed a wish, my dear Browne," said Lord
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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 Philebus by Plato: sight of their own pleasure or interest. True religion is not working for
a reward only, but is ready to work equally without a reward. It is not
'doing the will of God for the sake of eternal happiness,' but doing the
will of God because it is best, whether rewarded or unrewarded. And this
applies to others as well as to ourselves. For he who sacrifices himself
for the good of others, does not sacrifice himself that they may be saved
from the persecution which he endures for their sakes, but rather that they
in their turn may be able to undergo similar sufferings, and like him stand
fast in the truth. To promote their happiness is not his first object, but
to elevate their moral nature. Both in his own case and that of others
there may be happiness in the distance, but if there were no happiness he
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