| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith: TONY. No offence, gentlemen. But I'm told you have been inquiring for
one Mr. Hardcastle in these parts. Do you know what part of the
country you are in?
HASTINGS. Not in the least, sir, but should thank you for
information.
TONY. Nor the way you came?
HASTINGS. No, sir: but if you can inform us----
TONY. Why, gentlemen, if you know neither the road you are going, nor
where you are, nor the road you came, the first thing I have to inform
you is, that--you have lost your way.
MARLOW. We wanted no ghost to tell us that.
She Stoops to Conquer |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Smalcald Articles by Dr. Martin Luther: work, and been making their following ever smaller and ours
greater, and by their lies has caused and still causes them to
be brought to shame.
I must tell a story. There was a doctor sent here to
Wittenberg from France, who said publicly before us that his
king was sure and more than sure, that among us there is no
church, no magistrate, no married life, but all live
promiscuously as cattle, and each one does as he pleases.
Imagine now, how will those who by their writings have
instilled such gross lies into the king and other countries as
the pure truth, look at us on that day before the
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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 Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey: "We beat the slide," she cried.
The miniature avalanche cracked and roared, and rattled itself
into an inert mass at the base of the incline. Yellow dust like
the gloom of the cave, but not so changeless, drifted away on the
wind; the roar clapped in echo from the cliff, returned, went
back, and came again to die in the hollowness. Down on the sunny
terrace there was a different atmosphere. Ring and Whitie leaped
around Bess. Once more she was smiling, gay, and thoughtless,
with the dream-mood in the shadow of her eyes.
"Bess, I haven't seen that since last summer. Look!" said
Venters, pointing to the scalloped edge of rolling purple clouds
Riders of the Purple Sage |
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 Varieties of Religious Experience by William James: [Suso's] interior life, after he had purified his soul properly
by confession, he marked out for himself, in thought, three
circles, within which he shut himself up, as in a spiritual
intrenchment. The first circle was his cell, his chapel, and the
choir. When he was within this circle, he seemed to himself in
complete security. The second circle was the whole monastery as
far as the outer gate. The third and outermost circle was the
gate itself, and here it was necessary for him to stand well upon
his guard. When he went outside these circles, it seemed to him
that he was in the plight of some wild animal which is outside
its hole, and surrounded by the hunt, and therefore in need of
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