| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen: strange gurgling sound.
"That surely cannot be the bell," said one of the children, lying down and
listening. "This must be looked to." So he remained, and let the others go on
without him.
They afterwards came to a little house, made of branches and the bark of
trees; a large wild apple-tree bent over it, as if it would shower down all
its blessings on the roof, where roses were blooming. The long stems twined
round the gable, on which there hung a small bell.
Was it that which people had heard? Yes, everybody was unanimous on the
subject, except one, who said that the bell was too small and too fine to be
heard at so great a distance, and besides it was very different tones to those
Fairy Tales |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Records of a Family of Engineers by Robert Louis Stevenson: cakes made with sugar and plums. Here you have thousands of
carts to draw timber, thousands of coaches to take you to all
parts of the town, and thousands of boats to sail on the river
Thames. But you must have money to pay, otherwise you can get
nothing. Now the way to get money is, become clever men and
men of education, by being good scholars.'
From the same absence, he writes to his wife on a Sunday:
`It is now about eight o'clock with me, and I imagine you
to be busy with the young folks, hearing the questions
[ANGLICE, catechism], and indulging the boys with a chapter
from the large Bible, with their interrogations and your
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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 Roads of Destiny by O. Henry: Alice--that's my wife--and the boy and girl, and Alice stamps her
foot, and her eyes flash, and she cries out, 'The lying wretches--Tom,
Tom!' and I catch her in a faint, and bring her 'round little by
little, and she lays her head down and cries and cries for the first
time since she took Tom Kingman's name and fortunes. And Jack and
Zilla--the youngsters--they were always wild as tiger cubs to rush
over Bob and climb all over him whenever they were allowed to come to
the court-house--they stood and kicked their little shoes, and herded
together like scared partridges. They were having their first trip
down into the shadows of life. Bob was working at his desk, and he got
up and went out without a word. The grand jury was in session then,
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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 Scenes from a Courtesan's Life by Honore de Balzac: mastery of the tempter, also characterized the methods by which he had
subjugated Lucien. He created a terrible situation, dug a mine, filled
it with powder, and at the critical moment said to his accomplice,
"You have only to nod, and the whole will explode!"
Esther of old, knowing only the morality peculiar to courtesans,
thought all these attentions so natural, that she measured her rivals
only by what they could get men to spend on them. Ruined fortunes are
the conduct-stripes of these creatures. Carlos, in counting on
Esther's memory, had not calculated wrongly.
These tricks of warfare, these stratagems employed a thousand times,
not only by these women, but by spendthrifts too, did not disturb
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