| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Travels and Researches in South Africa by Dr. David Livingstone: formerly alight@mercury.interpath.net). To assure a high quality text,
the original was typed in (manually) twice and electronically compared.
[Note on text: Italicized words or phrases are CAPITALIZED.
Some obvious errors have been corrected.]
Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa.
Also called, Travels and Researches in South Africa;
or, Journeys and Researches in South Africa.
By David Livingstone [British (Scot) Missionary and Explorer--1813-1873.]
David Livingstone was born in Scotland, received his medical degree
from the University of Glasgow, and was sent to South Africa
by the London Missionary Society. Circumstances led him to try to meet
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Mountains by Stewart Edward White: caught at our hats and garments as though it had
been lying in wait for us.
To our eyes, fire-dazzled, the night seemed very
dark. There would be a moon later, but at present
even the stars seemed only so many pinpoints of
dull metal, lustreless, without illumination. We felt
our way to camp, conscious of the softness of grasses,
the uncertainty of stones.
At camp the remains of the fire crouched beneath
the rating of the storm. Its embers glowed sullen
and red, alternately glaring with a half-formed resolution
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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 Malbone: An Oldport Romance by Thomas Wentworth Higginson: she grimly nodded, as if she had no doubt of it,--"but never
just the same. To-day must take thought for itself."
"I wish it would," she said, gently, and then went on with her
own thoughts while he was silent. Presently she broke out
again in her impulsive way.
"Depend upon it," she said, "there is very little direct
retribution in this world."
Phil looked up, quite pleased at her indorsing one of his
favorite views. She looked, as she always did, indignant at
having said anything to please him.
"Yes," said she, "it is the indirect retribution that crushes.
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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 Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: Poiret [his eyes wide open]. "Monsieur, a government clerk is,
logically speaking, a man who needs the salary to maintain himself,
and is not free to get out of his place; for he doesn't know how to do
anything but copy papers."
Bixiou. "Ah! now we are coming to a conclusion. So the bureau is the
clerk's shell, husk, pod. No clerk without a bureau, no bureau without
a clerk. But what do you make, then, of a customs officer?" [Poiret
shuffles his feet and tries to edge away; Bixiou twists off one button
and catches him by another.] "He is, from the bureaucratic point of
view, a neutral being. The excise-man is only half a clerk; he is on
the confines between civil and military service; neither altogether
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