| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: in two; and one of our men that was with me, taking hold of the
sheepskin that covered it, pulled at it, when, behold, a most
hideous outcry ran through the village, and two or three hundred
people came about my ears, so that I was glad to scour for it, for
some had bows and arrows; but I resolved from that moment to visit
them again. Our caravan rested three nights at the town, which was
about four miles off, in order to provide some horses which they
wanted, several of the horses having been lamed and jaded with the
long march over the last desert; so we had some leisure here to put
my design in execution. I communicated it to the Scots merchant,
of whose courage I had sufficient testimony; I told him what I had
Robinson Crusoe |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain: to see how me and Jim was getting along with the
pens. It was most pesky tedious hard work and slow,
and didn't give my hands no show to get well of the
sores, and we didn't seem to make no headway, hardly;
so Tom says:
"I know how to fix it. We got to have a rock for
the coat of arms and mournful inscriptions, and we can
kill two birds with that same rock. There's a gaudy
big grindstone down at the mill, and we'll smouch it,
and carve the things on it, and file out the pens and
the saw on it, too."
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: eager to have devoured them, that we might have come off safe,
especially having our firearms in our hands, being so many in
number. For my part, I was never so sensible of danger in my
life; for, seeing above three hundred devils come roaring and open-
mouthed to devour us, and having nothing to shelter us or retreat
to, I gave myself over for lost; and, as it was, I believe I shall
never care to cross those mountains again: I think I would much
rather go a thousand leagues by sea, though I was sure to meet with
a storm once a-week.
I have nothing uncommon to take notice of in my passage through
France - nothing but what other travellers have given an account of
Robinson Crusoe |
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 Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin by Robert Louis Stevenson: his own view; he might be wrong; but the performances (he would
remind us) were after all his, and he must decide. He was, in this
as in all other things, an iron taskmaster, sparing not himself nor
others. If you were going to do it at all, he would see that it
was done as well as you were able. I have known him to keep two
culprits (and one of these his wife) repeating the same action and
the same two or three words for a whole weary afternoon. And yet
he gained and retained warm feelings from far the most of those who
fell under his domination, and particularly (it is pleasant to
remember) from the girls. After the slipshod training and the
incomplete accomplishments of a girls' school, there was something
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