| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Paradise Lost by John Milton: Consent or custom, and his regal state
Put forth at full, but still his strength concealed--
Which tempted our attempt, and wrought our fall.
Henceforth his might we know, and know our own,
So as not either to provoke, or dread
New war provoked: our better part remains
To work in close design, by fraud or guile,
What force effected not; that he no less
At length from us may find, who overcomes
By force hath overcome but half his foe.
Space may produce new Worlds; whereof so rife
Paradise Lost |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Persuasion by Jane Austen: the commonest civility required. Once so much to each other!
Now nothing! There had been a time, when of all the large party
now filling the drawing-room at Uppercross, they would have found it
most difficult to cease to speak to one another. With the exception,
perhaps, of Admiral and Mrs Croft, who seemed particularly attached
and happy, (Anne could allow no other exceptions even among
the married couples), there could have been no two hearts so open,
no tastes so similar, no feelings so in unison, no countenances so beloved.
Now they were as strangers; nay, worse than strangers, for they could
never become acquainted. It was a perpetual estrangement.
When he talked, she heard the same voice, and discerned the same mind.
Persuasion |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Familiar Studies of Men and Books by Robert Louis Stevenson: hindered was evil; and if this simple classification proved
inapplicable over the whole field, it was no business of his
to stop and reconcile incongruities. He had more pressing
concerns on hand; he had to save souls; he had to be about
his Father's business. This short-sighted view resulted in a
doctrine that was actually Jesuitical in application. They
had no serious ideas upon politics, and they were ready, nay,
they seemed almost bound, to adopt and support whichever
ensured for the moment the greatest benefit to the souls of
their fellow-men. They were dishonest in all sincerity.
Thus Labitte, in the introduction to a book (2) in which he
|
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 The Odyssey by Homer: heedlessness.
'For nine whole days we sailed by night and day
continually, and now on the tenth day my native land came
in sight, and already we were so near that we beheld the
folk tending the beacon fires. Then over me there came
sweet slumber in my weariness, for all the time I was
holding the sheet, nor gave it to any of my company, that
so we might come quicker to our own country. Meanwhile my
company held converse together, and said that I was
bringing home for myself gold and silver, gifts from Aeolus
the high-hearted son of Hippotas. And thus would they speak
The Odyssey |
