| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Works of Samuel Johnson by Samuel Johnson: Such is the general dream in which we all slumber
out our time: every man thinks the day coming, in
which he shall be gratified with all his wishes, in
which he shall leave all those competitors behind,
who are now rejoicing like himself in the expectation
of victory; the day is always coming to the servile
in which they shall be powerful, to the obscure
in which they shall be eminent, and to the deformed
in which they shall be beautiful.
If any of my readers has looked with so little
attention on the world about him, as to imagine this
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lady Baltimore by Owen Wister: staring at his letter, as I stood, half undressed, by my table. The calm
moon brought back Udolpho and what had been said there, as it now shone
down upon the garden where Hortense had danced. I stared at John's letter
as if its words were new to me, instead of being words that I could have
fluently repeated from beginning to end without an error; it was as if,
by virtue of mere gazing at the document, I hoped to wring more meaning
from it, to divine what had been in the mind which had composed it; but
instead of this, I seemed to get less from it, instead of more. Had the
boy's purpose been to mystify me, he could scarce have done better. I
think that he had no such intention, for it would have been wholly unlike
him; but I saw no sign in it that I had really helped him, had really
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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 Faraday as a Discoverer by John Tyndall: He knew that polarized light was a most subtle and delicate
investigator of molecular condition. He used it in 1834 in
exploring his electrolytes, and he tried it in 1838 upon his
dielectrics. At that time he coated two opposite faces of a glass
cube with tinfoil, connected one coating with his powerful electric
machine and the other with the earth, and examined by polarized
light the condition of the glass when thus subjected to strong
electric influence. He failed to obtain any effect; still he was
persuaded an action existed, and required only suitable means to
call it forth.
After his return from Switzerland he was beset by these thoughts;
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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 The Hidden Masterpiece by Honore de Balzac: personage must be the patron, or at least the intimate friend, of the
painter. He drew back into a corner of the landing and made room for
the new-comer; looking at him attentively and hoping to find either
the frank good-nature of the artistic temperament, or the serviceable
disposition of those who promote the arts. But on the contrary he
fancied he saw something diabolical in the expression of the old man's
face,--something, I know not what, which has the quality of alluring
the artistic mind.
Imagine a bald head, the brow full and prominent and falling with deep
projection over a little flattened nose turned up at the end like the
noses of Rabelais and Socrates; a laughing, wrinkled mouth; a short
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