| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Chinese Boy and Girl by Isaac Taylor Headland:
"Pitch the balls," he said.
The largest of the three boys fastened a cushioned band, on which
was a leather cup, around his head, the cup being on his forehead
just between his eyes.
He took two wooden balls, two and a half inches in diameter,
tossed them in the air twenty feet high, catching them in the cup
as they came down. The shape of the cup was such as to hold the
balls by suction when they fell. He never once missed. This is
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia by Samuel Johnson: necessary to the success of his purposes; he retired gladly to
privacy, because he had now a subject of thought. His chief
amusement was to picture to himself that world which he had never
seen, to place himself in various conditions, to be entangled in
imaginary difficulties, and to be engaged in wild adventures; but,
his benevolence always terminated his projects in the relief of
distress, the detection of fraud, the defeat of oppression, and the
diffusion of happiness.
Thus passed twenty months of the life of Rasselas. He busied
himself so intensely in visionary bustle that he forgot his real
solitude; and amidst hourly preparations for the various incidents
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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 Night and Day by Virginia Woolf: recollection, combined with his masterful ways--why did he walk so
fast down this side street?--made her more and more conscious of a
person of marked, though disagreeable, force by her side. She stopped
and, looking round her for a cab, sighted one in the distance. He was
thus precipitated into speech.
"Should you mind if we walked a little farther?" he asked. "There's
something I want to say to you."
"Very well," she replied, guessing that his request had something to
do with Mary Datchet.
"It's quieter by the river," he said, and instantly he crossed over.
"I want to ask you merely this," he began. But he paused so long 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 Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, etc. by Oscar Wilde: voice.
'Certainly not his sister,' answered Mr. Podgers, with a
deprecating wave of the hand, 'a distant relative merely.'
'Well, I am dreadfully disappointed,' said Lady Windermere. 'I
have absolutely nothing to tell Sybil to-morrow. No one cares
about distant relatives nowadays. They went out of fashion years
ago. However, I suppose she had better have a black silk by her;
it always does for church, you know. And now let us go to supper.
They are sure to have eaten everything up, but we may find some hot
soup. Francois used to make excellent soup once, but he is so
agitated about politics at present, that I never feel quite certain
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