| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Treatise on Parents and Children by George Bernard Shaw: House of Commons, at public meetings, we sit solemnly listening to
bores and twaddlers because from the time we could walk or speak we
have been snubbed, scolded, bullied, beaten and imprisoned whenever we
dared to resent being bored or twaddled at, or to express our natural
impatience and derision of bores and twaddlers. And when a man arises
with a soul of sufficient native strength to break the bonds of this
inculcated reverence and to expose and deride and tweak the noses of
our humbugs and panjandrums, like Voltaire or Dickens, we are shocked
and scandalized, even when we cannot help laughing. Worse, we dread
and persecute those who can see and declare the truth, because their
sincerity and insight reflects on our delusion and blindness. We are
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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 Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde: crawled no more, and horrible thoughts, time being dead, raced nimbly on
in front, and dragged a hideous future from its grave, and showed it to him.
He stared at it. Its very horror made him stone.
At last the door opened and his servant entered. He turned
glazed eyes upon him.
"Mr. Campbell, sir," said the man.
A sigh of relief broke from his parched lips, and the colour came
back to his cheeks.
"Ask him to come in at once, Francis." He felt that he was himself again.
His mood of cowardice had passed away.
The man bowed and retired. In a few moments, Alan Campbell walked in,
The Picture of Dorian Gray |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Man in Lower Ten by Mary Roberts Rinehart: "Then she thought you were in lower ten."
"I suppose she did, if she thought at all."
"But listen, man." McKnight was growing excited. "What do you
figure out of this? The Conway woman knows you have taken the
notes to Pittsburg. The probabilities are that she follows you
there, on the chance of an opportunity to get them, either for
Bronson or herself.
"Nothing doing during the trip over or during the day in Pittsburg;
but she learns the number of your berth as you buy it at the Pullman
ticket office in Pittsburg, and she thinks she sees her chance. No
one could have foreseen that that drunken fellow would have crawled
The Man in Lower Ten |
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 Travels and Researches in South Africa by Dr. David Livingstone: formerly alight@mercury.interpath.net). To assure a high quality text,
the original was typed in (manually) twice and electronically compared.
[Note on text: Italicized words or phrases are CAPITALIZED.
Some obvious errors have been corrected.]
Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa.
Also called, Travels and Researches in South Africa;
or, Journeys and Researches in South Africa.
By David Livingstone [British (Scot) Missionary and Explorer--1813-1873.]
David Livingstone was born in Scotland, received his medical degree
from the University of Glasgow, and was sent to South Africa
by the London Missionary Society. Circumstances led him to try to meet
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