| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Koran: And if ye fear a breach between the two, then send a judge from
his people and a judge from her people. If they wish for
reconciliation, God will arrange between them; verily, God is
knowing and aware.
And serve God, and do not associate aught with Him; and to your
parents show kindness, and to kindred, and orphans, and the poor, and'
the neighbour who is akin, and the neighbour who is a stranger, and
the companion who is strange, and the son of the road, and what your
right hands possess, verily, God loves not him who is proud and
boastful; who are miserly and bid men be miserly too, and who hide
what God has given them of His grace;- but we have prepared for the
The Koran |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Charmides by Plato: your outward form is no dishonour to any of them. If to beauty you add
temperance, and if in other respects you are what Critias declares you to
be, then, dear Charmides, blessed art thou, in being the son of thy mother.
And here lies the point; for if, as he declares, you have this gift of
temperance already, and are temperate enough, in that case you have no need
of any charms, whether of Zamolxis or of Abaris the Hyperborean, and I may
as well let you have the cure of the head at once; but if you have not yet
acquired this quality, I must use the charm before I give you the medicine.
Please, therefore, to inform me whether you admit the truth of what Critias
has been saying;--have you or have you not this quality of temperance?
Charmides blushed, and the blush heightened his beauty, for modesty 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 Pathology of Lying, Etc. by William and Mary Healy: a pivot from which she regarded it as existing only for what it
meant for her career. These qualities have led to her
statements, and perhaps to the actual feelings, that she was the
aggrieved one, and had been badly treated on many occasions.
This seemed to reach almost paranoidal heights at times, and yet,
before passing judgment on this, one should be in position to
know, what probably will never be known, namely, the actual facts
of her earliest treatment. Occasionally Inez showed most
unreasonable bad temper and obstinacy. This only came out when
she was asked to do things which she considered occupationally
beneath her. In general she felt herself much above the ordinary
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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 Silverado Squatters by Robert Louis Stevenson: innocent successes, and to this natural and unselfish joy
they gave expression in language that was beautiful by its
simplicity and truth.
Take them for all in all, few people have done my heart more
good; they seemed so thoroughly entitled to happiness, and to
enjoy it in so large a measure and so free from after-
thought; almost they persuaded me to be a Jew. There was,
indeed, a chink of money in their talk. They particularly
commanded people who were well to do. "HE don't care - ain't
it?" was their highest word of commendation to an individual
fate; and here I seem to grasp the root of their philosophy -
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