| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: longs for his supper, for whom all day long two dark oxen
drag through the fallow field the jointed plough, yea and
welcome to such an one the sunlight sinketh, that so he may
get him to supper, for his knees wax faint by the way, even
so welcome was the sinking of the sunlight to Odysseus.
Then straight he spake among the Phaeacians, masters of the
oar, and to Alcinous in chief he made known his word,
saying:
'My lord Alcinous, most notable of all the people, pour ye
the drink offering, and send me safe upon my way, and as
for you, fare ye well. For now have I all that my heart
The Odyssey |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Cruise of the Jasper B. by Don Marquis: free from the wreckage. Still side by side they leaped the port
bulwark, splashed into the canal, and swam straight across it, as
if animated with the instinct of going straight ahead in that
fashion to the end of the world. Cleggett never saw or heard of
them again.
"Bring a lantern," said Cleggett to Abernethy. "Let's see if this
man is badly hurt."
But the negro was not injured. He rose to his feet as the
Captain brought the light--the storm was now subsiding, and the
lightning was less frequent--and stood revealed as a person of
surprising size and unusual blackness. He was, in fact, so black
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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 Agesilaus by Xenophon: his hosts of foot and horse and stores of wealth, had set his heart on
a war with Persia. Joyfully he learned that he himself was summoned by
King Tachos, and that the command-in-chief of all the forces was
promised to him. By this one venture he would achieve three objects,
which were to requite the Egyptian for the benefits conferred on
Lacedaemon; to liberate the Hellenes in Asia once again; and to
inflict on the Persian a just recompense, not only for the old
offences, but for this which was of to-day; seeing that, while
boasting alliance with Sparta, he had dictatorially enjoined the
emancipation of Messene.[37] But when the man who had summoned him
refused to confer the proffered generalship, Agesilaus, like one on
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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 The Wrong Box by Stevenson & Osbourne: the back lane, enshrined the multifarious industry of Mr Pitman.
All day, it is true, he was engaged in the work of education at a
seminary for young ladies; but the evenings at least were his
own, and these he would prolong far into the night, now dashing
off 'A landscape with waterfall' in oil, now a volunteer bust
('in marble', as he would gently but proudly observe) of some
public character, now stooping his chisel to a mere 'nymph' for a
gasbracket on a stair, sir'), or a life-size 'Infant Samuel' for
a religious nursery. Mr Pitman had studied in Paris, and he had
studied in Rome, supplied with funds by a fond parent who went
subsequently bankrupt in consequence of a fall in corsets; and
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