| 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 the angels after that, will back him up.
'It may be that his Lord if he divorce you will give him in exchange
wives better than you, Muslims, believers, devout, repentant,
worshipping, giving to fasting-such as have known men and virgins
too.'
O ye who believe! save yourselves and your families from the fire,
whose fuel is men and stones;-over it are angels stout and stern; they
disobey not God in what He bids them, but they do what they are
bidden!
O ye who disbelieve! excuse not yourselves today;-ye shall only be
rewarded for that which ye have done.
The Koran |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Economist by Xenophon: when I may still expect to find at home this, that, or the other
friend, whom I may wish to see. Then, if anything has to be done in
town, I set off to transact the business and make that my walk;[12]
or, if there is no business to do in town, my serving-boy leads my
horse to the farm; I follow, and so make the country-road my walk,
which suits my purpose quite as well, or better, Socrates, perhaps,
than pacing up and down the colonade.[13] Then when I have reached the
farm, where mayhap some of my men are planting trees, or breaking
fallow, sowing or getting in the crops, I inspect their various
labours with an eye to every detail, and, whenever I can improve upon
the present system, I introduce reform. After this, as a rule, I mount
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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 Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe: after-dream of the reveller upon opium--the bitter lapse into
everyday life--the hideous dropping off of the veil. There was
an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart--an unredeemed
dreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination could
torture into aught of the sublime. What was it--I paused to
think--what was it that so unnerved me in the contemplation of
the House of Usher? It was a mystery all insoluble; nor could I
grapple with the shadowy fancies that crowded upon me as I
pondered. I was forced to fall back upon the unsatisfactory
conclusion, that while, beyond doubt, there are combinations
of very simple natural objects which have the power of thus
The Fall of the House of Usher |
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 An Historical Mystery by Honore de Balzac: to be the first to bring the news. Durieu prepared a succulent dinner,
the servants donned their best clothes, and the household impatiently
awaited the exiles, who arrived about four o'clock, happy,--and yet
humiliated, for they found they were to be under police surveillance
for two years, obliged to present themselves at the prefecture every
month and ordered to remain in the commune of Cinq-Cygne during the
said two years. "I'll send you the papers for signature," the prefect
said to them. "Then, in the course of a few months, you can ask to be
relieved of these conditions, which are imposed on all of Pichegru's
accomplices. I will back your request."
These restrictions, fairly deserved, rather dispirited the young men,
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