| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Inaugural Address by John F. Kennedy: from this responsibility. . .I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us
would exchange places with any other people or any other generation.
The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor
will light our country and all who serve it. . .and the glow from
that fire can truly light the world.
And so, my fellow Americans. . .ask not what your country can
do for you. . .ask what you can do for your country. My fellow
citizens of the world. . .ask not what America will do for you,
but what together we can do for the Freedom of Man.
Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world,
ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Glaucus/The Wonders of the Shore by Charles Kingsley: cosmical sciences have acquired a soundness, severity, and fulness,
which render them, as mere intellectual exercises, as valuable to a
manly mind as Mathematics and Metaphysics.
But how very lately have they attained that firm and honourable
standing ground! It is a question whether, even twenty years ago,
Geology, as it then stood, was worth troubling one's head about, so
little had been really proved. And heavy and uphill was the work,
even within the last fifteen years, of those who stedfastly set
themselves to the task of proving and of asserting at all risks,
that the Maker of the coal seam and the diluvial cave could not be
a "Deus quidam deceptor," and that the facts which the rock and the
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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 The Monster Men by Edgar Rice Burroughs: As they were rushing to obey their leader's command there was
a respite in the fighting on the ship, for the three
who had not fallen beneath the bull whip had leaped overboard
to escape the fate which had overtaken their comrades.
As the reinforcements started to scale the vessel's
side Number Thirteen's searching eyes found the girl in
Muda Saffir's prahu, where it lay a little off from the
Ithaca, and as the first of the enemy clambered over
the rail she saw a smile of encouragement light the
clear cut features of the man above her. Virginia Maxon
sent back an answering smile--a smile that filled
The Monster Men |
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 Barlaam and Ioasaph by St. John of Damascus: among the people, and, in much haste, forth went every man for to
seek him; they being minded by all means to cut off his flight.
And their zeal was not spent in vain; for, when they had occupied
all the high-ways, and encompassed all the mountains, and
surrounded the pathless ravines, they discovered him in a water-
course, his hands uplifted to heaven, saying the prayer proper of
the Sixth Hour.
When they beheld him, they surrounded him, and besought him with
team, upbraiding him for departing from them. "But," said he,
"why labour ye in vain? No longer hope to have me to your king."
Yet gave he way to their much opposition, and turned again to
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