| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: hours' time with ten or twelve large boats, having some of them
eight, some ten men in a boat, intending, no doubt, to have come on
board and plundered the ship, and if they found us there, to have
carried us away for slaves.
When they came up to the ship, and began to row round her, they
discovered us all hard at work on the outside of the ship's bottom
and side, washing, and graving, and stopping, as every seafaring
man knows how. They stood for a while gazing at us, and we, who
were a little surprised, could not imagine what their design was;
but being willing to be sure, we took this opportunity to get some
of us into the ship, and others to hand down arms and ammunition to
Robinson Crusoe |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Footnote to History by Robert Louis Stevenson: their war-flag had returned on board the ADLER; and only the German
merchant flag blew there for Weber's land-claim. Mulinuu, for
which Becker had intrigued so long and so often, for which he had
overthrown the municipality, for which he had abrogated and refused
and invented successive schemes of neutral territory, was now no
more to the Germans than a very unattractive, barren peninsula and
a very much disputed land-claim of Mr. Weber's. It will scarcely
be believed that the tale of the Scanlon outrages was not yet
finished. Leary had gained his point, but Scanlon had lost his
compensation. And it was months later, and this time in the shape
of a threat of bombardment in black and white, that Tamasese heard
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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 Troll Garden and Selected Stories by Willa Cather: "Yes, like the flowers that grow in paradise, I think."
She was somewhat startled by this reply, and more startled
when this taciturn man spoke again.
"You go away tomorrow?"
"Yes, we have stayed longer than we thought to now."
"You not come back any more?"
"No, I expect not. You see, it is a long trip halfway across
the continent."
"You soon forget about this country, I guess." It seemed to
him now a little thing to lose his soul for this woman, but that
she should utterly forget this night into which he threw all his
The Troll Garden and Selected Stories |
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 Firm of Nucingen by Honore de Balzac: summed up l'Espirit des Lois."
"What?" said Finot.
"Laws are like spiders' webs; the big flies get through, while the
little ones are caught."
"Then, what are you for?" asked Finot.
"For absolute government, the only kind of government under which
enterprises against the spirit of the law can be put down. Yes.
Arbitrary rule is the salvation of a country when it comes to the
support of justice, for the right of mercy is strictly one-sided. The
king can pardon a fraudulent bankrupt; he cannot do anything for the
victims. The letter of the law is fatal to modern society."
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