| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Madam How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley: thing happen, if you will put marbles or billiard-balls in a row
touching each other, and strike the one nearest you smartly in the
line of the row. All the balls stand still, except the last one,
and that flies off. The shock, like the earthquake shock, has run
through them all; but only the end one, which had nothing beyond
it but soft air, has been moved; and when you grow old, and learn
mathematics, you will know the law of motion according to which
that happens, and learn to apply what the billiard-balls have
taught you, to explain the wonders of an earthquake. For in this
case, as in so many more, you must watch Madam How at work on
little and common things, to find out how she works in great and
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Pierrette by Honore de Balzac: The scene made Monsieur Desfondrilles smile; his was a keen mind,
which found much amusement in watching the play of all the self-
interests in Provins.
"Yes, it was certainly the colonel's game," said Cournant the notary,
not knowing what the question was.
Sylvie threw a look at Mademoiselle Habert,--one of those glances
which pass from old maid to old maid, feline and cruel.
"Pierrette, you did see my hand," said Sylvie fixing her eyes on the
girl.
"No, cousin."
"I was looking at you all," said the deputy-judge, "and I can swear
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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 War and the Future by H. G. Wells: landing....
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One consequence of the growing importance of the aeroplane in
warfare is the development of a new military art, the art of
camouflage. Camouflage is humbugging disguise, it is making
things--and especially in this connection, military things--seem
not what they are, but something peaceful and rural, something
harmless and quite uninteresting to aeroplane observers. It is
the art of making big guns look like haystacks and tents like
level patches of field.
Also it includes the art of making attractive models of guns,
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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 Madam How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley: You love that short turf well. You love to run and race over the
Downs with your butterfly-net and hunt "chalk-hill blues," and
"marbled whites," and "spotted burnets," till you are hot and
tired; and then to sit down and look at the quiet little old city
below, with the long cathedral roof, and the tower of St. Cross,
and the gray old walls and buildings shrouded by noble trees, all
embosomed among the soft rounded lines of the chalk-hills; and
then you begin to feel very thirsty, and cry, "Oh, if there were
but springs and brooks in the Downs, as there are at home!" But
all the hollows are as dry as the hill tops. There is not a
brook, or the mark of a watercourse, in one of them. You are like
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