| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Research Magnificent by H. G. Wells: seemed to him the crowning instant, the real marriage of their
lives. It had gone, it had left no recoverable trace in her. And
upon his interpretations of that he had loved her passionately for a
year. She was back at exactly the ideas and intentions that ruled
her during their first settlement in London. She wanted a joint
life in the social world of London, she demanded his presence, his
attention, the daily practical evidences of love. It was all very
well for him to be away when the child was coming, but now
everything was different. Now he must stay by her.
This time he argued no case. These issues he had settled for ever.
Even an indignant dissertation from Lady Marayne, a dissertation
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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 Outlaw of Torn by Edgar Rice Burroughs: his end the bitterer for him. Of late I have noted that
he rides upon the highway with less enthusiasm than
was his wont, but he has gone too far ever to go back
now; nor is there where to go back to. What has he
ever been other than outcast and outlaw? What hopes
could you have engendered in his breast greater than
to be hated and feared among his blood enemies?"
"I knowst not thy reasons, old man," replied the
priest, "for devoting thy life to the ruining of his, and
what I guess at be such as I dare not voice; but let us
understand each other once and for all. For all thou
The Outlaw of Torn |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Two Noble Kinsmen by William Shakespeare: A mile hence. I have sent him, where a Cedar,
Higher than all the rest, spreads like a plane
Fast by a Brooke, and there he shall keepe close,
Till I provide him Fyles and foode, for yet
His yron bracelets are not off. O Love,
What a stout hearted child thou art! My Father
Durst better have indur'd cold yron, than done it:
I love him beyond love and beyond reason,
Or wit, or safetie: I have made him know it.
I care not, I am desperate; If the law
Finde me, and then condemne me for't, some wenches,
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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 Damaged Goods by Upton Sinclair: so far as to commit a crime. Either I give up the case, or you
have the nursing of the child stopped."
"You threaten! You threaten!" cried the woman, almost frantic.
"You abuse the power which your knowledge gives you! You know
that it is you whose attention we need by that little cradle; you
know that we believe in you, and you threaten to abandon us!
Your abandonment means the death of the child, perhaps! And if I
listen to you, if we stop the nursing of the child--that also
means her death!"
She flung up her hands like a mad creature. "And yet there is no
other means! Ah, my God! Why do you not let it be possible for
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