| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Michael Strogoff by Jules Verne: ably, the bulk of the Tartar forces had taken up a position
before the Siberian capital.
There was not a moment to be lost; besides, the cold
was becoming more and more severe. During the night
the temperature fell below zero; ice was already forming
on the surface of the Baikal. Although the raft managed
to pass easily over the lake, it might not be so easy between
the banks of the Angara, should pieces of ice be found to
block up its course.
At eight in the evening the moorings were cast off, and
the raft drifted in the current along the shore. It was
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from First Inaugural Address by Abraham Lincoln: according to circumstances actually existing, and with a view and
a hope of a peaceful solution of the national troubles and the
restoration of fraternal sympathies and affections.
That there are persons in one section or another who seek to destroy
the Union at all events, and are glad of any pretext to do it, I will
neither affirm nor deny; but if there be such, I need address no word
to them. To those, however, who really love the Union may I not speak?
Before entering upon so grave a matter as the destruction of our
national fabric, with all its benefits, its memories, and its hopes,
would it not be wise to ascertain precisely why we do it?
Will you hazard so desperate a step while there is any possibility
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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 Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland by Olive Schreiner: farmers, and couldn't do as shopkeepers, and God knows what else; and their
friends in England didn't want to have them; they're sent out here to boss
it over us! It's a damned shame! Why, I want to know, amn't I as good as
any of these fellows, who come swelling it about here? Friends got money,
I suppose!" He cast his sharp glance over towards the bell tent. "If they
gave us real English officers now--"
"Ah!" said the biggest of his companions, who, in spite of his huge form,
had something of the simplicity and good nature of a child in his handsome
face; "it's because you're not a big enough swell, you know! He'll be a
colonel, or a general, before we've done with him. I call them all
generals or colonels up here; it's safest, you know; if they're not that
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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 Fanny Herself by Edna Ferber: young woman who had drudged in the store on Elm Street. In
her place she would mold a hard, keen-eyed, resolute woman,
whose godhead was to be success, and to whom success would
mean money and position. She had not a head for
mathematics, but out of the puzzling problems and syllogisms
in geometry she had retained in her memory this one
immovable truth:
A straight line is the shortest distance between two points.
With her mental eye she marked her two points, and then,
starting from the first, made directly for the second. But
she forgot to reckon with the law of tangents. She forgot,
Fanny Herself |
