| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: sooner than I intended; to which the court, impatient to have me
gone, very readily contributed. Five hundred workmen were
employed to make two sails to my boat, according to my
directions, by quilting thirteen folds of their strongest linen
together. I was at the pains of making ropes and cables, by
twisting ten, twenty, or thirty of the thickest and strongest of
theirs. A great stone that I happened to find, after a long
search, by the sea-shore, served me for an anchor. I had the
tallow of three hundred cows, for greasing my boat, and other
uses. I was at incredible pains in cutting down some of the
largest timber-trees, for oars and masts, wherein I was, however,
Gulliver's Travels |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum: "Oh, I expect he's run down," said Dorothy. "I forgot to wind him up
this morning. How many guesses has he made?"
"All that he is allowed except one," answered the King. "Suppose you go
in and wind him up, and then you can stay there and make your own guesses."
"All right," said Dorothy.
"It is my turn next," declared the Scarecrow.
"Why, you don't want to go away and leave me all alone, do you?" asked
the girl. "Besides, if I go now I can wind up Tiktok, so that he can
make his last guess."
"Very well, then," said the Scarecrow, with a sigh. "Run along,
little Dorothy, and may good luck go with you!"
Ozma of Oz |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner: eyes, though he understood not a word.
"I repeat," said Bonaparte, "what is a liar?"
The sensation was intense; the attention of the audience was riveted.
"Have you any of you ever seen a liar, my dear friends?" There was a still
longer pause. "I hope not; I truly hope not. But I will tell you what a
liar is. I knew a liar once--a little boy who lived in Cape Town, in Short
Market Street. His mother and I sat together one day, discoursing about
our souls.
"'Here, Sampson,' said his mother, 'go and buy sixpence of meiboss from the
Malay round the corner.'
"When he came back she said: 'How much have you got?'
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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 On Revenues by Xenophon: at this point explain in detail how the silver mines may be furnished
and extended so as to render them much more useful to the state. Only
I would premise that I claim no sort of admiration for anything which
I am about to say, as though I had hit upon some recondite discovery.
Since half of what I have to say is at the present moment still patent
to the eyes of all of us, and as to what belongs to past history, if
we are to believe the testimony of our fathers,[10] things were then
much of a piece with what is going on now. No, what is really
marvellous is that the state, with the fact of so many private persons
growing wealthy at her expense, and under her very eyes, should have
failed to imitate them. It is an old story, trite enough to those of
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