| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Man against the Sky by Edwin Arlington Robinson: As if the tramp of all the centuries
Had left no roads -- and there are none, for him;
He doesn't see them, even with those eyes, --
And that's a pity, or I say it is.
Accordingly we have him as we have him --
Going his way, the way that he goes best,
A pleasant animal with no great noise
Or nonsense anywhere to set him off --
Save only divers and inclement devils
Have made of late his heart their dwelling place.
A flame half ready to fly out sometimes
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Twice Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne: is true, was not a skilful controversialist; but the feeling of
his religion was strong as instinct in him, and he could neither
be enticed nor driven from the faith which his father had died
for. The odium of this stubbornness was shared in a great measure
by the child's protectors, insomuch that Tobias and Dorothy very
shortly began to experience a most bitter species of persecution,
in the cold regards of many a friend whom they had valued. The
common people manifested their opinions more openly. Pearson was
a man of some consideration, being a representative to the
General Court and an approved lieutenant in the trainbands, yet
within a week after his adoption of Ilbrahim he had been both
Twice Told Tales |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: then ate the cattle of the sun-god, and how Jove therefore
struck the ship with his thunderbolts, so that all his men
perished together, himself alone being left alive; how at last
he reached the Ogygian island and the nymph Calypso, who kept
him there in a cave, and fed him, and wanted him to marry her,
in which case she intended making him immortal so that he should
never grow old, but she could not persuade him to let her do so;
and how after much suffering he had found his way to the
Phaeacians, who had treated him as though he had been a god, and
sent him back in a ship to his own country after having given
him gold, bronze, and raiment in great abundance. This was the
The Odyssey |
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 Case of The Lamp That Went Out by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: nurse to our present young master, and she's been in the house ever
since. When his parents died, it's some years ago now, she took
entire charge of the housekeeping. She was a fine active woman
then, and now the young master and mistress couldn't get along
without her. They treat her as if she was one of the family."
"And she is ill also? I say also," explained Muller, "because the
landlord has just been telling me that your mistress is ill."
"Yes, indeed, more's the pity! our poor dear young lady has been
miserable for nearly a year now. It's a shame to see such a sweet
angel as she is suffer like that and the master's quite heart-broken
over it. But there's nothing the matter with Mrs. Bernaner. How
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