| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Phaedo by Plato: on the face of the earth there are hollows of various forms and sizes, into
which the water and the mist and the lower air collect. But the true earth
is pure and situated in the pure heaven--there are the stars also; and it
is the heaven which is commonly spoken of by us as the ether, and of which
our own earth is the sediment gathering in the hollows beneath. But we who
live in these hollows are deceived into the notion that we are dwelling
above on the surface of the earth; which is just as if a creature who was
at the bottom of the sea were to fancy that he was on the surface of the
water, and that the sea was the heaven through which he saw the sun and the
other stars, he having never come to the surface by reason of his
feebleness and sluggishness, and having never lifted up his head and seen,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom by William and Ellen Craft: in court against a free white person.
Therefore, with little difficulty I went to dif-
ferent parts of the town, at odd times, and purchased
things piece by piece, (except the trowsers which
she found necessary to make,) and took them home
to the house where my wife resided. She being
a ladies' maid, and a favourite slave in the family,
was allowed a little room to herself; and amongst
other pieces of furniture which I had made in my
overtime, was a chest of drawers; so when I took
the articles home, she locked them up carefully in
Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas: "You shall not do that, D'Artagnan," said Athos, coolly.
"And why not? Have I not been there once?"
"Yes; but at that period we were not at war. At that period
Buckingham was an ally, and not an enemy. What you would
now do amounts to treason."
D'Artagnan perceived the force of this reasoning, and was
silent.
"But," said Porthos, "I think I have an idea, in my turn."
"Silence for Monsieur Porthos's idea!" said Aramis.
"I will ask leave of absence of Monsieur de Treville, on
some pretext or other which you must invent; I am not very
The Three Musketeers |
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 Familiar Studies of Men and Books by Robert Louis Stevenson: Brouncker's mistress, who was not even, by his own account,
the most discreet of mistresses. Tag, rag, and bobtail,
dancing, singing, and drinking, become his natural element;
actors and actresses and drunken, roaring courtiers are to be
found in his society; until the man grew so involved with
Saturnalian manners and companions that he was shot almost
unconsciously into the grand domestic crash of 1668.
That was the legitimate issue and punishment of years of
staggering walk and conversation. The man who has smoked his
pipe for half a century in a powder magazine finds himself at
last the author and the victim of a hideous disaster. So
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