| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from When a Man Marries by Mary Roberts Rinehart: she was too good for him, I never batted an eye. And I shook
hands solemnly across the tea-table again, and wished him
happiness--which was sincere enough, but hopeless--and said we
had only been playing a game, but that it was time to stop
playing. Jim kissed my hand, and it was really very touching.
We had been the best of friends ever since. Two days before the
wedding he came around from his tailor's, and we burned all his
letters to me. He would read one and say: "Here's a crackerjack,
Kit," and pass it to me. And after I had read it we would lay it
on the firelog, and Jim would say, "I am not worthy of her, Kit.
I wonder if I can make her happy?" Or--"Did you know that the
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Woman and Labour by Olive Schreiner: more pugnacious towards each other than are the males.
Among mammals generally, except the tendency to greater pugnacity shown by
the male towards other males, and the greater solicitude for the young
shown generally by the female form, but not always; the psychic differences
between the two sex forms are not great. Between the male and female
pointer as puppies, there is as little difference in mental activity as in
physical; and even when adult, on the hunting ground, that great non-sexual
field in which their highest mental and physical activities are displayed,
there is little or nothing which distinguishes materially between the male
and female; in method, manner, and quickness they are alike; in devotion to
man, they are psychically identical. (It is often said the female dog is
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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 Don Quixote by Miquel de Cervantes: considering that, as a holy place, that spot would be respected.
"Hold, sirs, hold!" cried Don Quixote in a loud voice; "we have no
right to take vengeance for wrongs that love may do to us: remember
love and war are the same thing, and as in war it is allowable and
common to make use of wiles and stratagems to overcome the enemy, so
in the contests and rivalries of love the tricks and devices
employed to attain the desired end are justifiable, provided they be
not to the discredit or dishonour of the loved object. Quiteria
belonged to Basilio and Basilio to Quiteria by the just and beneficent
disposal of heaven. Camacho is rich, and can purchase his pleasure
when, where, and as it pleases him. Basilio has but this ewe-lamb, and
Don Quixote |
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 Essays of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: deck. One of these, an elderly managing woman, hailed me with
counsels. Of course I had to reply; and as the talk went on, I began
to discover that the whole group took me for the husband. I looked
upon my new wife, poor creature, with mingled feelings; and I must
own she had not even the appearance of the poorest class of city
servant-maids, but looked more like a country wench who should have
been employed at a roadside inn. Now was the time for me to go and
study the brass plate.
To such of the officers as knew about me - the doctor, the purser,
and the stewards - I appeared in the light of a broad joke. The fact
that I spent the better part of my day in writing had gone abroad
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