| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. Wells: how they gave up bandagings and wrappings, abandoned at last every
stitch of clothing; how the hair began to spread over the exposed limbs;
how their foreheads fell away and their faces projected;
how the quasi-human intimacy I had permitted myself with some
of them in the first month of my loneliness became a shuddering
horror to recall.
The change was slow and inevitable. For them and for me it came
without any definite shock. I still went among them in safety,
because no jolt in the downward glide had released the increasing
charge of explosive animalism that ousted the human day by day.
But I began to fear that soon now that shock must come.
The Island of Doctor Moreau |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: of Rabourdin's study and that of his wife's bedroom were thrown open.
The rooms were thus spacious enough to contain a select company,
without the absurdity which attends many middle-class entertainments,
where unusual preparations are made at the expense of the daily
comfort, and consequently give the effect of exceptional effort. The
salon had lately been rehung in gold-colored silk with carmelite
touches. Madame's bedroom was draped in a fabric of true blue and
furnished in a rococo manner. Rabourdin's study had inherited the late
hangings of the salon, carefully cleaned, and was adorned by the fine
pictures once belonging to Monsieur Leprince. The daughter of the late
auctioneer had utilized in her dining-room certain exquisite Turkish
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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 Venus and Adonis by William Shakespeare: 'Let me excuse thy courser, gentle boy;
And learn of him, I heartily beseech thee, 404
To take advantage on presented joy
Though I were dumb, yet his proceedings teach thee.
O learn to love, the lesson is but plain,
And once made perfect, never lost again. 408
'I know not love,' quoth he, 'nor will not know it,
Unless it be a boar, and then I chase it;
'Tis much to borrow, and I will not owe it;
My love to love is love but to disgrace it; 412
For I have heard it is a life in death,
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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 Happy Prince and Other Tales by Oscar Wilde: Duck; "there are so many things that need reforming. Indeed, I
took the chair at a meeting some time ago, and we passed
resolutions condemning everything that we did not like. However,
they did not seem to have much effect. Now I go in for
domesticity, and look after my family."
"I am made for public life," said the Rocket, "and so are all my
relations, even the humblest of them. Whenever we appear we excite
great attention. I have not actually appeared myself, but when I
do so it will be a magnificent sight. As for domesticity, it ages
one rapidly, and distracts one's mind from higher things."
"Ah! the higher things of life, how fine they are!" said the Duck;
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