| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Adventure by Jack London: Sheldon, subdued and silent. At the end of half an hour she turned
to him with a wan smile and said, -
"I don't think I care to visit the head-hunters any more. It's
adventure, I know; but there is such a thing as having too much of
a good thing. Riding around the plantation will henceforth be good
enough for me, or perhaps salving another Martha; but the bushmen
of Guadalcanar need never worry for fear that I shall visit them
again. I shall have nightmares for months to come, I know I shall.
Ugh!--the horrid beasts!"
That night found them back in camp with Tudor, who, while improved,
would still have to be carried down on a stretcher. The swelling
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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 Illustrious Gaudissart by Honore de Balzac: meant to go away; but was reassured when he saw that he kept his seat.
"You may even be nothing at all," said Gaudissart, going on with his
phrases, "but you are conscious of yourself; you feel yourself--"
"I feel myself," said the lunatic.
"--you feel yourself a great man; you say to yourself, 'I will be a
minister of state.' Well, then, you--painter, artist, man of letters,
statesman of the future--you reckon upon your talents, you estimate
their value, you rate them, let us say, at a hundred thousand
crowns--"
"Do you give me a hundred thousand crowns?"
"Yes, Monsieur, as you will see. Either your heirs and assigns will
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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 Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield: first, appeared. This time he determined to catch it. He made a
tremendous effort and rolled right over.
Chapter 1.VII.
The tide was out; the beach was deserted; lazily flopped the warm sea. The
sun beat down, beat down hot and fiery on the fine sand, baking the grey
and blue and black and white-veined pebbles. It sucked up the little drop
of water that lay in the hollow of the curved shells; it bleached the pink
convolvulus that threaded through and through the sand-hills. Nothing
seemed to move but the small sand-hoppers. Pit-pit-pit! They were never
still.
Over there on the weed-hung rocks that looked at low tide like shaggy
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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 The Research Magnificent by H. G. Wells: could wander into a wilderness of population, polite or sombre,
poor, rich, or middle-class, but all ceaselessly active, all
urgently pressing, as it seemed, to their part in the drama of the
coming years. He loved the late afternoon, when every artery is
injected and gorged with the multitudinous home-going of the daily
workers, he loved the time of lighting up, and the clustering
excitements of the late hours. And he went out southward and
eastward into gaunt regions of reeking toil. As yet he knew nothing
of the realities of industrialism. He saw only the beauty of the
great chimneys that rose against the sullen smoke-barred sunsets,
and he felt only the romance of the lurid shuddering flares that
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