| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Damnation of Theron Ware by Harold Frederic: CHAPTER XXXII
Spring fell early upon the pleasant southern slopes of
the Susquehanna country. The snow went off as by magic.
The trees budded and leaved before their time. The birds
came and set up their chorus in the elms, while winter
seemed still a thing of yesterday.
Alice, clad gravely in black, stood again upon a kitchen-stoop,
and looked across an intervening space of back-yards and
fences to where the tall boughs, fresh in their new verdure,
were silhouetted against the pure blue sky. The prospect
recalled to her irresistibly another sunlit morning,
The Damnation of Theron Ware |
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 The Economist by Xenophon: economist[5] at any rate to manage his own house or estate well.
[5] Or, "manager of a house or estate."
Soc. And supposing another man's house to be entrusted to him, he
would be able, if he chose, to manage it as skilfully as his own,
would he not? since a man who is skilled in carpentry can work as well
for another as for himself: and this ought to be equally true of the
good economist?
Crit. Yes, I think so, Socrates.
Soc. Then there is no reason why a proficient in this art, even if he
does not happen to possess wealth of his own, should not be paid a
salary for managing a house, just as he might be paid for building
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