| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Pupil by Henry James: "We ought to go off and live somewhere together," the young man
said.
"I'll go like a shot if you'll take me."
"I'd get some work that would keep us both afloat," Pemberton
continued.
"So would I. Why shouldn't I work? I ain't such a beastly little
muff as that comes to."
"The difficulty is that your parents wouldn't hear of it. They'd
never part with you; they worship the ground you tread on. Don't
you see the proof of it?" Pemberton developed. "They don't dislike
me; they wish me no harm; they're very amiable people; but they're
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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 Large Catechism by Dr. Martin Luther: neighbor's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his
cattle, nor anything that is his.
These two commandments are given quite exclusively to the Jews;
nevertheless, in part they also concern us. For they do not interpret
them as referring to unchastity or theft, because these are
sufficiently forbidden above. They also thought that they had kept all
those when they had done or not done the external act. Therefore God
has added these two commandments in order that it be esteemed as sin
and forbidden to desire or in any way to aim at getting our neighbor's
wife or possessions; and especially because under the Jewish government
man-servants and maid-servants were not free as now to serve for wages
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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 Mountains by Stewart Edward White: To the left as you rode you saw, far on the horizon,
rising to the height of your eye, the mountains
of the channel islands. Then the deep sapphire of
the Pacific, fringed with the soft, unchanging white
of the surf and the yellow of the shore. Then the
town like a little map, and the lush greens of the
wide meadows, the fruit-groves, the lesser ranges--
all vivid, fertile, brilliant, and pulsating with vitality.
You filled your senses with it, steeped them in the
beauty of it. And at once, by a mere turn of the
eyes, from the almost crude insistence of the bright
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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 La Grande Breteche by Honore de Balzac: the stranger, to whom the signal was meant to convey, 'Hope.'
"At four o'clock, as the day was dawning, for it was the month of
September, the work was done. The mason was placed in charge of Jean,
and Monsieur de Merret slept in his wife's room.
"Next morning when he got up he said with apparent carelessness, 'Oh,
by the way, I must go to the Maire for the passport.' He put on his
hat, took two or three steps towards the door, paused, and took the
crucifix. His wife was trembling with joy.
" 'He will go to Duvivier's,' thought she.
"As soon as he had left, Madame de Merret rang for Rosalie, and then
in a terrible voice she cried: 'The pick! Bring the pick! and set to
La Grande Breteche |
