| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Hellenica by Xenophon: region denuded of the enemy threw large supplies into his hands. On
the fourth day the cavalry of the enemy approached. Their general
ordered the officer in charge of his baggage-train to cross the
Pactolus and encamp, while his troopers, catching sight of stragglers
from the Hellenic force scattered in pursuit of booty, put several of
them to the sword. Perceiving which, Agesilaus ordered his cavalry to
the rescue; and the Persians on their side, seeing their advance,
collected together in battle order to receive them, with dense
squadrons of horse, troop upon troop. The Spartan, reflecting that the
enemy had as yet no infantry to support him, whilst he had all
branches of the service to depend upon, concluded that the critical
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar by Edgar Rice Burroughs: eyes so that she had to turn away to hide them; but she
remained inflexible in her determination to make him
pay in frightful suffering and in eventual death for
daring to spurn the love of La.
When the shelter was completed La had Tarzan
transferred to it. "All night I shall torture him,"
she muttered to her priests, "and at the first streak
of dawn you may prepare the flaming altar upon which
his heart shall be offered up to the Flaming God.
Gather wood well filled with pitch, lay it in the form
and size of the altar at Opar in the center of the
Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas: Provinces.
It was indeed a sight to see him watching the obnoxious
moths and butterflies, killing slugs, and driving away the
hungry bees.
As he had heard Boxtel's story, and was furious at having
been the dupe of the pretended Jacob, he destroyed the
sycamore behind which the envious Isaac had spied into the
garden; for the plot of ground belonging to him had been
bought by Cornelius, and taken into his own garden.
Rosa, growing not only in beauty, but in wisdom also, after
two years of her married life, could read and write so well
The Black Tulip |
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 Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin: I shall tell you how, in such a situation, I acquired what little
ability I have in that way.
There was another bookish lad in the town, John Collins by name,
with whom I was intimately acquainted. We sometimes disputed,
and very fond we were of argument, and very desirous of confuting
one another, which disputatious turn, by the way, is apt to become
a very bad habit, making people often extremely disagreeable in company
by the contradiction that is necessary to bring it into practice;
and thence, besides souring and spoiling the conversation,
is productive of disgusts and, perhaps enmities where you may have
occasion for friendship. I had caught it by reading my father's
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin |
