| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Chance by Joseph Conrad: look at the pair over the rail. The captain took hold of the girl's
arm just before a couple of railway trucks drawn by a horse came
rolling along and hid them from the ship-keeper's sight for good.
Next day, when the chief mate joined the ship, he told him the tale
of the visit, and expressed himself about the girl "who had got hold
of the captain" disparagingly. She didn't look healthy, he
explained. "Shabby clothes, too," he added spitefully.
The mate was very much interested. He had been with Anthony for
several years, and had won for himself in the course of many long
voyages, a footing of familiarity, which was to be expected with a
man of Anthony's character. But in that slowly-grown intimacy of
Chance |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Intentions by Oscar Wilde: study, Ernest, the more clearly I see that the beauty of the
visible arts is, as the beauty of music, impressive primarily, and
that it may be marred, and indeed often is so, by any excess of
intellectual intention on the part of the artist. For when the
work is finished it has, as it were, an independent life of its
own, and may deliver a message far other than that which was put
into its lips to say. Sometimes, when I listen to the overture to
TANNHAUSER, I seem indeed to see that comely knight treading
delicately on the flower-strewn grass, and to hear the voice of
Venus calling to him from the caverned hill. But at other times it
speaks to me of a thousand different things, of myself, it may be,
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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 Call of the Wild by Jack London: rest had recuperated the dogs and put them in thorough trim. The
trail they had broken into the country was packed hard by later
journeyers. And further, the police had arranged in two or three
places deposits of grub for dog and man, and he was travelling
light.
They made Sixty Mile, which is a fifty-mile run, on the first day;
and the second day saw them booming up the Yukon well on their way
to Pelly. But such splendid running was achieved not without
great trouble and vexation on the part of Francois. The insidious
revolt led by Buck had destroyed the solidarity of the team. It
no longer was as one dog leaping in the traces. The encouragement
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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 Walking by Henry David Thoreau: follow indoor occupations increases. He grows vespertinal in his
habits as the evening of life approaches, till at last he comes
forth only just before sundown, and gets all the walk that he
requires in half an hour.
But the walking of which I speak has nothing in it akin to taking
exercise, as it is called, as the sick take medicine at stated
hours--as the Swinging of dumb-bells or chairs; but is itself the
enterprise and adventure of the day. If you would get exercise,
go in search of the springs of life. Think of a man's swinging
dumbbells for his health, when those springs are bubbling up in
far-off pastures unsought by him!
Walking |
