| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne: truth of this rule upon plain facts,--you see it liable to so much error
from a false application;--the principle upon which it goes so often
perverted;--the whole force of it lost, and sometimes so vilely cast away,
that it is painful to produce the common examples from human life, which
confirm the account.
'A man shall be vicious and utterly debauched in his principles;--
exceptionable in his conduct to the world; shall live shameless, in the
open commission of a sin which no reason or pretence can justify,--a sin by
which, contrary to all the workings of humanity, he shall ruin for ever the
deluded partner of his guilt;--rob her of her best dowry; and not only
cover her own head with dishonour;--but involve a whole virtuous family in
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: already to great employments, honors, and offices, and, to gratify
their covetousness, making himself a partner in injustice and
wickedness. So much so, that all flocked to him, and courted and
desired him, hoping, if he remained in power, that the highest wishes
they could form would all be gratified. And therefore, from the very
beginning, they could not look pleasantly upon Callicratidas, when he
came to succeed Lysander as admiral; nor, afterwards, when he had
given them experience that he was a most noble and just person, were
they pleased with the manner of his government, and its
straightforward, Dorian, honest character. They did, indeed, admire
his virtue, as they might the beauty of some hero's image; but their
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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 Tanglewood Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne: gloomy. It was bordered on each side with rocks and precipices,
between which the rumbling of the chariot wheels was
reverberated with a noise like rolling thunder. The trees and
bushes that grew in the crevices of the rocks had very dismal
foliage; and by and by, although it was hardly noon, the air
became obscured with a gray twilight. The black horses had
rushed along so swiftly, that they were already beyond the
limits of the sunshine. But the duskier it grew, the more did
Pluto's visage assume an air of satisfaction. After all, he was
not an ill-looking person, especially when he left off twisting
his features into a smile that did not belong to them.
Tanglewood Tales |
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 Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes: Jargonelles, and must be made the most of, for their day is soon
over. Some come into their perfect condition late, like the autumn
kinds, and they last better than the summer fruit. And some, that,
like the Winter-Nelis, have been hard and uninviting until all the
rest have had their season, get their glow and perfume long after
the frost and snow have done their worst with the orchards. Beware
of rash criticisms; the rough and stringent fruit you condemn may
be an autumn or a winter pear, and that which you picked up beneath
the same bough in August may have been only its worm-eaten
windfalls. Milton was a Saint-Germain with a graft of the roseate
Early-Catherine. Rich, juicy, lively, fragrant, russet skinned old
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table |
