| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Hero of Our Time by M.Y. Lermontov: the times of the farthingale, and the motley hue
of her by no means smooth skin, of the happy
epoch of the black taffeta patch. An immense
wart on her neck was covered by a clasp. She was
saying to her cavalier, a captain of dragoons:
"That young Princess Ligovski is a most
intolerable creature! Just fancy, she jostled
against me and did not apologise, but even turned
round and stared at me through her lorgn-
ette! . . . C'est impayable! . . . And what
has she to be proud of? It is time somebody
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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 Koran: And when he reached puberty, and was settled, we gave him judgment
and knowledge; for thus do we reward those who do well. And he entered
into the city at the time the people thereof were heedless, and he
found therein two men fighting; the one of his sect and the other of
his foes. And he who was of his sect asked his aid against him who was
of his foes; and Moses smote him with his fist and finished him.
Said he, 'This is of the work of Satan, verily, he is a misleading
obvious foe.'
Said he, 'My Lord! verily, I have wronged my soul, but forgive
me.' So He forgave him; for He is forgiving and merciful.
Said he, 'My Lord! for that Thou hast been gracious to me, I will
The Koran |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: "I'm going to fix everything just the way it was before," he said,
nodding determinedly. "She'll see."
He talked a lot about the past, and I gathered that he wanted to recover
something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy.
His life had been confused and disordered since then, but if he could
once return to a certain starting place and go over it all slowly, he
could find out what that thing was. . . .
. . . One autumn night, five years before, they had been walking down
the street when the leaves were falling, and they came to a place where
there were no trees and the sidewalk was white with moonlight.
They stopped here and turned toward each other. Now it was a cool night
The Great Gatsby |
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 Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne: of impatience,--but 'twas unexpected too; in the four years he had attended
him, he had never seen any thing like it in my uncle Toby's carriage; he
had never once dropped one fretful or discontented word;--he had been all
patience,--all submission.
--We lose the right of complaining sometimes by forbearing it;--but we
often treble the force:--The surgeon was astonished; but much more so, when
he heard my uncle Toby go on, and peremptorily insist upon his healing up
the wound directly,--or sending for Monsieur Ronjat, the king's serjeant-
surgeon, to do it for him.
The desire of life and health is implanted in man's nature;--the love of
liberty and enlargement is a sister-passion to it: These my uncle Toby had
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