| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Fantastic Fables by Ambrose Bierce: A DISTINGUISHED Advocate of Republican Institutions was seen
pickling his shins in the ocean.
"Why don't you come out on dry land?" said the Spectator. "What
are you in there for?"
"Sir," replied the Distinguished Advocate of Republican
Institutions, "a ship is expected, bearing His Majesty the King of
the Fly-Speck Islands, and I wish to be the first to grasp the
crowned hand."
"But," said the Spectator, "you said in your famous speech before
the Society for the Prevention of the Protrusion of Nail Heads from
Plank Sidewalks that Kings were blood-smeared oppressors and hell-
Fantastic Fables |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Edingburgh Picturesque Notes by Robert Louis Stevenson: Blue Blanket alternated with the brawls of outlandish
clansmen and retainers. Down in the palace John Knox
reproved his queen in the accents of modern democracy.
In the town, in one of those little shops plastered like
so many swallows' nests among the buttresses of the old
Cathedral, that familiar autocrat, James VI., would
gladly share a bottle of wine with George Heriot the
goldsmith. Up on the Pentland Hills, that so quietly
look down on the Castle with the city lying in waves
around it, those mad and dismal fanatics, the Sweet
Singers, haggard from long exposure on the moors, sat day
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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 On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin: may be dependent on the number of its parasites or other enemies, or on
quite distinct causes, and so be altogether independent of the quantity of
honey which the bees could collect. But let us suppose that this latter
circumstance determined, as it probably often does determine, the numbers
of a humble-bee which could exist in a country; and let us further suppose
that the community lived throughout the winter, and consequently required a
store of honey: there can in this case be no doubt that it would be an
advantage to our humble-bee, if a slight modification of her instinct led
her to make her waxen cells near together, so as to intersect a little; for
a wall in common even to two adjoining cells, would save some little wax.
Hence it would continually be more and more advantageous to our humble-bee,
On the Origin of Species |
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 Democracy In America, Volume 1 by Alexis de Toqueville: upon this subject.
It appears to me, in the first place, that a careful
distinction must be made between the institutions of the United
States and democratic institutions in general. When I reflect
upon the state of Europe, its mighty nations, its populous
cities, its formidable armies, and the complex nature of its
politics, I cannot suppose that even the Anglo-Americans, if they
were transported to our hemisphere, with their ideas, their
religion, and their manners, could exist without considerably
altering their laws. But a democratic nation may be imagined,
organized differently from the American people. It is not
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