| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin by Robert Louis Stevenson: rag pokes fun at two splendid little Turks with brilliant fezzes;
wiry mountaineers in dirty, full, white kilts, shouldering long
guns and one hand on their pistols, stalk untamed past a dozen
Turkish soldiers, who look sheepish and brutal in worn cloth jacket
and cotton trousers. A headless, wingless lion of St. Mark still
stands upon a gate, and has left the mark of his strong clutch. Of
ancient times when Crete was Crete, not a trace remains; save
perhaps in the full, well-cut nostril and firm tread of that
mountaineer, and I suspect that even his sires were Albanians, mere
outer barbarians.
'May 17.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Virginibus Puerisque by Robert Louis Stevenson: been bred up to sacrifice her judgments and take the key
submissively from dear papa; and it is wonderful how swiftly
she can change her tune into the husband's. Her morality has
been, too often, an affair of precept and conformity. But in
the case of a bachelor who has enjoyed some measure both of
privacy and freedom, his moral judgments have been passed in
some accordance with his nature. His sins were always sins in
his own sight; he could then only sin when he did some act
against his clear conviction; the light that he walked by was
obscure, but it was single. Now, when two people of any grit
and spirit put their fortunes into one, there succeeds to this
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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 A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay: The moment they stepped across the bubbling spring, the atmosphere
altered. Without becoming stale or unpleasant, it grew cold, clear
and refined, and somehow suggested austere and tomblike thoughts.
The daylight disappeared at the first bend in the tunnel. After
that, Maskull could not say where the light came from. The air
itself must have been luminous, for though it was as light as full
moon on Earth, neither he nor Leehallfae cast a shadow. Another
peculiarity of the light was that both the walls of the tunnel and
their own bodies appeared colourless. Everything was black and
white, like a lunar landscape. This intensified the solemn, funereal
feelings created by the atmosphere.
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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 Dream Life and Real Life by Olive Schreiner: Little Jannita sat alone beside a milk-bush. Before her and behind her
stretched the plain, covered with red sand and thorny karoo bushes; and
here and there a milk-bush, looking like a bundle of pale green rods tied
together. Not a tree was to be seen anywhere, except on the banks of the
river, and that was far away, and the sun beat on her head. Round her fed
the Angora goats she was herding; pretty things, especially the little
ones, with white silky curls that touched the ground. But Jannita sat
crying. If an angel should gather up in his cup all the tears that have
been shed, I think the bitterest would be those of children.
By and by she was so tired, and the sun was so hot, she laid her head
against the milk-bush, and dropped asleep.
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