| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tono Bungay by H. G. Wells: gun, aimed quite coolly, drew the trigger carefully and shot him
neatly in the back.
I saw, and saw with a leap of pure exaltation, the smash of my
bullet between his shoulder blades. "Got him," said I, dropping
my gun and down he flopped and died without a groan. "By Jove!"
I cried with note of surprise, "I've killed him!" I looked about
me and then went forward cautiously, in a mood between curiosity
and astonishment, to look at this man whose soul I had flung so
unceremoniously out of our common world. I went to him, not as
one goes to something one has made or done, but as one approaches
something found.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Caesar's Commentaries in Latin by Julius Caesar: accideret, magnopere sibi praecavendum Caesar existimabat. Namque omnium
rerum quae ad bellum usui erant summa erat in eo oppido facultas, idque
natura loci sic muniebatur ut magnam ad ducendum bellum daret facultatem,
propterea quod flumen [alduas] Dubis ut circino circumductum paene totum
oppidum cingit, reliquum spatium, quod est non amplius pedum MDC, qua
flumen intermittit, mons continet magna altitudine, ita ut radices eius
montis ex utraque parte ripae fluminis contingant, hunc murus circumdatus
arcem efficit et cum oppido coniungit. Huc Caesar magnis nocturnis
diurnisque itineribus contendit occupatoque oppido ibi praesidium
conlocat.
Dum paucos dies ad Vesontionem rei frumentariae commeatusque causa
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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 Oakdale Affair by Edgar Rice Burroughs: sisted The General.
"An' he shot me up," growled Dopey Charlie.
"It's too bad he didn't kill you," remarked Bridge
pleasantly. "You're a thief and probably a murderer into
the bargain--you tried to kill this boy just before he shot
you."
"Well wots he?" demanded Dopey Charlie. "He's a
thief--he said he was--look in his pockets--they're
crammed wid swag, an' he's a gun-man, too, or he
wouldn't be packin' a gat. I guess he ain't got nothin'
on me."
The Oakdale Affair |
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 Research Magnificent by H. G. Wells: has been my help: I am fastidious, I eat little, drink little, and
feel a shivering recoil from excess. It is no great virtue; it
happens so; it is something in the nerves of my skin. I cannot
endure myself unshaven or in any way unclean; I am tormented by
dirty hands or dirty blood or dirty memories, and after I had once
loved Amanda I could not--unless some irrational impulse to get
equal with her had caught me--have broken my faith to her, whatever
breach there was in her faith to me. . . .
"I see that in these matters I am cleaner than most men and more
easily clean; and it may be that it is in the vein of just that
distinctive virtue that I fell so readily into a passion of
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