| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Phaedrus by Plato: piece?--such a life as any one can imagine and which I need not detail at
length. But I may sum up all that I have to say in a word, and pass on.
Such a person in war, or in any of the great crises of life, will be the
anxiety of his friends and also of his lover, and certainly not the terror
of his enemies; which nobody can deny.
And now let us tell what advantage or disadvantage the beloved will receive
from the guardianship and society of his lover in the matter of his
property; this is the next point to be considered. The lover will be the
first to see what, indeed, will be sufficiently evident to all men, that he
desires above all things to deprive his beloved of his dearest and best and
holiest possessions, father, mother, kindred, friends, of all whom he
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Moran of the Lady Letty by Frank Norris: An hour later Wilbur and Moran knew that he was dead. Yet, though
they had never left the hammock, they could not have told at just
what moment he died.
Later, on that same afternoon, Wilbur, from the crow's-nest, saw
the lighthouse on Point Loma and the huge rambling bulk of the
Coronado Hotel spreading out and along the beach.
It was the outpost of civilization. They were getting back to the
world again. Within an hour's ride of the hotel were San Diego,
railroads, newspapers, and policemen. Just off the hotel,
however, Wilbur could discern the gleaming white hull of a United
States man-of-war. With the glass he could make her out to be one
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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 Koran: herself to the prophet, if the prophet desire to marry her;-a
special privilege this for thee, above the other believers.
We knew what we ordained for them concerning their wives and what
their right hands possess, that there should be no hindrance to
thee; and God is forgiving, merciful.
Put off whomsoever thou wilt of them and take to thyself
whomsoever thou wilt, or whomsoever thou cravest of those whom thou
hast deposed, and it shall be no crime against thee. That is nigher to
cheering their eyes and that they should not grieve, and should be
satisfied with what thou dost bring them all; but God knows best
what is in their hearts; and God is knowing, clement.
The Koran |
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 Roads of Destiny by O. Henry: Grandemont had his cards of invitation engraved. They were expensive,
but beautiful. In one particular their good taste might have been
disputed; but the Creole allowed himself that one feather in the cap
of his fugacious splendour. Might he not be allowed, for the one day
of the /renaissance/, to be "Grandemont du Puy Charles, of Charleroi"?
He sent the invitations out early in January so that the guests might
not fail to receive due notice.
At eight o'clock on the morning of the nineteenth, the lower coast
steamboat /River Belle/ gingerly approached the long unused landing at
Charleroi. The bridge was lowered, and a swarm of the plantation hands
streamed along the rotting pier, bearing ashore a strange assortment
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