| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Red Inn by Honore de Balzac: world through correspondence; a man hitherto personally unknown to
him. This friend, the head of a rather important house in Nuremburg,
was a stout worthy German, a man of taste and erudition, above all a
man of pipes, having a fine, broad, Nuremburgian face, with a square
open forehead adorned by a few sparse locks of yellowish hair. He was
the type of the sons of that pure and noble Germany, so fertile in
honorable natures, whose peaceful manners and morals have never been
lost, even after seven invasions.
This stranger laughed with simplicity, listened attentively, and drank
remarkably well, seeming to like champagne as much perhaps as he liked
his straw-colored Johannisburger. His name was Hermann, which is that
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Parmenides by Plato: one of many, and so not of one; and if of none, how of all? Therefore a
part is neither a part of many nor of all, but of an absolute and perfect
whole or one. And if the others have parts, they must partake of the
whole, and must be the whole of which they are the parts. And each part,
as the word 'each' implies, is also an absolute one. And both the whole
and the parts partake of one, for the whole of which the parts are parts is
one, and each part is one part of the whole; and whole and parts as
participating in one are other than one, and as being other than one are
many and infinite; and however small a fraction you separate from them is
many and not one. Yet the fact of their being parts furnishes the others
with a limit towards other parts and towards the whole; they are finite and
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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 Rescue by Joseph Conrad: still that not even the sound of water lapping the shore reached
his ears. He found himself in profound accord with this blind and
soundless peace.
"Has anything at all been seen?" he asked incredulously.
Four men were produced at once who had seen a dark mass of boats
moving in the light of the dawn. Others were sent for. He hardly
listened to them. His thought escaped him and he stood
motionless, looking out into the unstirring mist pervaded by the
perfect silence. Presently Belarab joined him, escorted by three
grave, swarthy men, himself dark-faced, stroking his short grey
beard with impenetrable composure. He said to Lingard, "Your
The Rescue |
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 Art of Writing by Robert Louis Stevenson: cheer, and when he and Mr. Thomson sat down a few minutes
later, cheek by jowl, and pledged the past in a preliminary
bumper, he was already almost consoled, he had already almost
forgiven himself his two unpardonable errors, that he should
ever have left his native city, or ever returned to it.
'I have something quite in your way,' said Mr. Thomson. 'I
wished to do honour to your arrival; because, my dear fellow,
it is my own youth that comes back along with you; in a very
tattered and withered state, to be sure, but - well! - all
that's left of it.'
'A great deal better than nothing,' said the editor. 'But
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