| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring by George Bernard Shaw: if a king is patriotic and respectable (few kings are) he puts up
statues to him and exalts him above Charlemagne and Henry the
Fowler. And when he meets a man of genius, he instinctively
insults him, starves him, and, if possible, imprisons and kills
him.
Now I do not pretend to be perfect myself. Heaven knows I have to
struggle hard enough every day with what the Germans call my
higher impulses. I know too well the temptation to be moral, to
be self-sacrificing, to be loyal and patriotic, to be respectable
and well-spoken of. But I wrestle with it and--as far as human
fraility will allow--conquer it, whereas the German abandons
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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 Wife, et al by Anton Chekhov: steam. The doctor went on talking, and I was soon convinced that
he was a weak, unfortunate man, disorderly in external life.
Three glasses of vodka made him drunk; he grew unnaturally
lively, ate a great deal, kept clearing his throat and smacking
his lips, and already addressed me in Italian, "Eccellenza."
Looking naively at me as though he were convinced that I was very
glad to see and hear him, he informed me that he had long been
separated from his wife and gave her three-quarters of his
salary; that she lived in the town with his children, a boy and a
girl, whom he adored; that he loved another woman, a widow, well
educated, with an estate in the country, but was rarely able to
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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 Two Brothers by Honore de Balzac: dealing, and easy-going freedom of a soldier. This made him, in
reality, very dangerous; he seemed as guileless as a child, but,
thinking only of himself, he never did anything without reflecting
what he had better do,--like a wily lawyer planning some trick "a la
Maitre Gonin"; words cost him nothing, and he said as many as he could
to get people to believe. If, unfortunately, some one refused to
accept the explanations with which he justified the contradictions
between his conduct and his professions, the colonel, who was a good
shot and could defy the most adroit fencing-master, and possessed the
coolness of one to whom life is indifferent, was quite ready to demand
satisfaction for the first sharp word; and when a man shows himself
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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 The Ebb-Tide by Stevenson & Osbourne: gooseberry tart, and 'ot coffee, and some of that form of vice in
big bottles with a seal--Benedictine--that's the bloomin' nyme!
Then I'd drop into a theatre, and pal on with some chappies,
and do the dancing rooms and bars, and that, and wouldn't go
'ome till morning, till daylight doth appear. And the next day
I'd have water-cresses, 'am, muffin, and fresh butter; wouldn't I
just, O my!'
The clerk was interrupted by a fresh attack of coughing.
'Well, now, I'll tell you what I would do,' said the captain: 'I
would have none of your fancy rigs with the man driving from
the mizzen cross-trees, but a plain fore-and-aft hack cab of the
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