| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates by Howard Pyle: dark space was full of uproar, the hubbub and confusion pierced
through and through by that keen sound of women's voices
screaming, one in the cabin and the other in the stateroom
beyond. Almost immediately Barnaby pitched headlong over two or
three struggling men scuffling together upon the deck, falling
with a great clatter and the loss of his pistol, which, however,
he regained almost immediately.
What all the uproar meant he could not tell, but he presently
heard Captain Manly's voice from somewhere suddenly calling out,
"You bloody pirate, would you choke me to death?" wherewith some
notion of what had happened came to him like a dash, and that
Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Father Sergius by Leo Tolstoy: his enemies be scattered . . .'
'But I am not a devil!' It was obvious that the lips that
uttered this were smiling. 'I am not a devil, but only a sinful
woman who has lost her way, not figuratively but literally!' She
laughed. 'I am frozen and beg for shelter.'
He pressed his face to the window, but the little icon-lamp was
reflected by it and shone on the whole pane. He put his hands to
both sides of his face and peered between them. Fog, mist, a
tree, and--just opposite him--she herself. Yes, there, a few
inches from him, was the sweet, kindly frightened face of a woman
in a cap and a coat of long white fur, leaning towards him.
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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 Plain Tales from the Hills by Rudyard Kipling: She was bad from her hair--which started life on a Brittany's
girl's head--to her boot-heels, which were two and three-eighth
inches high. She was not honestly mischievous like Mrs. Hauksbee;
she was wicked in a business-like way.
There was never any scandal--she had not generous impulses enough
for that. She was the exception which proved the rule that Anglo-
Indian ladies are in every way as nice as their sisters at Home.
She spent her life in proving that rule.
Mrs. Hauksbee and she hated each other fervently. They heard far
too much to clash; but the things they said of each other were
startling--not to say original. Mrs. Hauksbee was honest--honest
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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 De Profundis by Oscar Wilde: in pain. . . .
I must say to myself that I ruined myself, and that nobody great or
small can be ruined except by his own hand. I am quite ready to
say so. I am trying to say so, though they may not think it at the
present moment. This pitiless indictment I bring without pity
against myself. Terrible as was what the world did to me, what I
did to myself was far more terrible still.
I was a man who stood in symbolic relations to the art and culture
of my age. I had realised this for myself at the very dawn of my
manhood, and had forced my age to realise it afterwards. Few men
hold such a position in their own lifetime, and have it so
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