| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Philebus by Plato: SOCRATES: This is evidently comprehended in the third or mixed class;
which is not composed of any two particular ingredients, but of all the
elements of infinity, bound down by the finite, and may therefore be truly
said to comprehend the conqueror life.
PROTARCHUS: Most true.
SOCRATES: And what shall we say, Philebus, of your life which is all
sweetness; and in which of the aforesaid classes is that to be placed?
Perhaps you will allow me to ask you a question before you answer?
PHILEBUS: Let me hear.
SOCRATES: Have pleasure and pain a limit, or do they belong to the class
which admits of more and less?
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from 1492 by Mary Johntson: leagues away. This passed, and the morning broke, silent
and tranquil, azure sky and azure sea, and not so sharply
clear as yesterday. The great calm wind again pushed us.
Hispaniola! Hispaniola! Her mountains and her palms
before us.
We coasted to the river Hayna and the Spanish city of
San Domingo. Three hours from sunset down in harbor
plunged our anchors, down rattled our sails.
The _Consolacion's_ long boat danced by her side. The
Admiral would send to land but one boat, and in it for envoy
Pedro de Terreros, a well-speaking man and known to Don
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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 Records of a Family of Engineers by Robert Louis Stevenson: some of the stages of a rather touching experiment; no less
than an attempt to secure Charles Peebles heir to George's
favour. He is despatched, under the character of `a fine
young man'; recommended to gentlemen for `advice, as he's a
stranger in your place, and indeed to this kind of charge,
this being his first outset as Foreman'; and for a long while
after, the letter-book, in the midst of that thrilling first
year of the Bell Rock, is encumbered with pages of instruction
and encouragement. The nature of a bill, and the precautions
that are to be observed about discounting it, are expounded at
length and with clearness. `You are not, I hope, neglecting,
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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 Tom Sawyer Abroad by Mark Twain: Tom Sawyer the Erronort than to be Tom Sawyer the
Traveler, and we would be heard of all round the
world, if we pulled through all right, and so he wouldn't
give shucks to be a traveler now.
Toward the middle of the afternoon we got every-
thing ready to land, and we felt pretty good, too, and
proud; and we kept watching with the glasses, like
Columbus discovering America. But we couldn't see
nothing but ocean. The afternoon wasted out and the
sun shut down, and still there warn't no land any-
wheres. We wondered what was the matter, but
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