| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Cruise of the Jasper B. by Don Marquis: responsibility of the situation was Cleggett's.
"But, don't you know her? Didn't you come here with her?"
The squat young man appeared to debate some moral issue inwardly
for a moment. And then, speaking this time out of the right
corner of his mouth, which was now nearer Cleggett, without
disturbing the left half of his face, he pointed towards the
oblong box and murmured huskily: "That's my job." He went and
sat down on the box again.
Without more ado Cleggett lifted the lady and bore her onto the
Jasper B. She was a heavy burden, but Cleggett declined the
assistance of Cap'n Abernethy and George the Greek, who had come
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tour Through Eastern Counties of England by Daniel Defoe: of note, with a great many private men, though, as they had the
field, they concealed their number, giving out that they lost but a
hundred, when we were assured they lost near a thousand men besides
the wounded.
They took some of our men prisoners, occasioned by the regiment of
Colonel Farr, and two more sustaining the shock of their whole
army, to secure the retreat of the main body, as above.
The 14th, the Lord Fairfax finding he was not able to carry the
town by storm, without the formality of a siege, took his
headquarters at Lexden, and sent to London and to Suffolk for more
forces; also he ordered the trained bands to be raised and posted
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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 Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: base of the same shape. They face one another and mark the
position of the vaulted corridors which allow free movement in
every direction around the central chamber. The mother walks
gravely to and fro under the arches of her cloisters, she stops
first here, then there; she makes a lengthy auscultation of the
egg-wallet; she listens to all that happens inside the satin
wrapper. To disturb her would be barbarous.
For a closer examination, let us use the dilapidated nests which we
brought from the fields. Apart from its pillars, the egg-pocket is
an inverted conoid, reminding us of the work of the Silky Epeira.
Its material is rather stout; my pincers, pulling at it, do not
The Life of the Spider |
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 Of The Nature of Things by Lucretius: Both by its own velocity and by
Repeated touch of fire. Thereafter, when
The energy of wind is heated through
And the fierce impulse of the fire hath sped
Deeply within, O then the thunderbolt,
Now ripened, so to say, doth suddenly
Splinter the cloud, and the aroused flash
Leaps onward, lumining with forky light
All places round. And followeth anon
A clap so heavy that the skiey vaults,
As if asunder burst, seem from on high
Of The Nature of Things |
