| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Rewards and Fairies by Rudyard Kipling: breadth in the clinging dirt, with the noise of a giant's kiss.
'You're getting her!' Simon Cheyneys slapped his knee. 'Hing
on! Hing on, lads, or she'll master ye! Ah!'
Sailor's left hind hoof had slipped on a heather-tuft. One of the
men whipped off his sack apron and spread it down. They saw
Sailor feel for it, and recover. Still the log hung, and the team
grunted in despair.
'Hai!' shouted Cattiwow, and brought his dreadful whip twice
across Sailor's loins with the crack of a shot-gun. The horse
almost screamed as he pulled that extra last ounce which he did
not know was in him. The thin end of the log left the dirt 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 A Sentimental Journey by Laurence Sterne: night, and that I would discharge what I owed him at breakfast.
I should not have minded, Monsieur, said he, if you had had twenty
girls - 'Tis a score more, replied I, interrupting him, than I ever
reckon'd upon - Provided, added he, it had been but in a morning. -
And does the difference of the time of the day at Paris make a
difference in the sin? - It made a difference, he said, in the
scandal. - I like a good distinction in my heart; and cannot say I
was intolerably out of temper with the man. - I own it is
necessary, resumed the master of the hotel, that a stranger at
Paris should have the opportunities presented to him of buying lace
and silk stockings and ruffles, ET TOUT CELA; - and 'tis nothing if
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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 Finished by H. Rider Haggard: have run so fast. In a minute she was down the slope and had
vanished into a dense kloof where, as night was closing in and we
were very tired, it was impossible for us to follow her. Nor did
subsequent inquiry in Howick tell us where she was living or
whence she came, for some months before she had left the place
she had taken there as a cook.
Such was the end of Kaatje so far as we were concerned.
Doubtless to her dying day she remained, or will remain, a firm
believer in ghosts.
Anscombe and Heda were married at Maritzburg as soon as the
necessary formalities had been completed. I could not attend the
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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 Four Arthurian Romances by Chretien DeTroyes: My mirror has greatly deceived me; for in it my heart saw a ray
of light with which I am afflicted, and which has penetrated deep
within me, causing me to lose my wits. I am ill-treated by my
friend, who deserts me for my enemy. I may well accuse him of
felony for the wrong he has done to me. I thought I had three
friends, my heart and my two eyes together; but it seems that
they hate me. Where shall I ever find a friend, when these three
are my enemies, belonging to me, yet putting me to death? My
servants mock at my authority, in doing what they please without
consulting my desire. After my experience with these who have
done me wrong, I know full well that a good man's love may be
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