| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland by Olive Schreiner: that this man drinks, or that that woman has got into trouble, you always
answer me, 'Wife, what business is it of ours if so be that we cannot help
them?' A little innocent gossip offends you; and you go to visit people
and treat them as your friends, into whose house I would not go. Yet when
the richest and strongest men in the land, who could crush you with their
money, as a boy crushes a fly between his finger and thumb, take a certain
course, you stand and oppose them.'
"And he said, 'My wife, with the sins of the private man, what have I to
do, if so be I have not led him into them? Am I guilty? I have enough to
do looking after my own sins. The sin that a man sins against himself is
his alone, not mine; the sin that a man sins against his fellows is his and
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac: you are generous, if--"
As he heard this cry of noble distress the young man's tears fell upon
his cousin's hands, which he had caught in his own to keep her from
kneeling. As the warm tears touched her, Eugenie sprang to the purse
and poured its contents upon the table.
"Ah! yes, yes, you consent?" she said, weeping with joy. "Fear
nothing, my cousin, you will be rich. This gold will bring you
happiness; some day you shall bring it back to me,--are we not
partners? I will obey all conditions. But you should not attach such
value to the gift."
Charles was at last able to express his feelings.
Eugenie Grandet |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Ivanhoe by Walter Scott: the tyrannical and unjust imprisonment they had
sustained. With this controversy, and with the
means he had adopted to counteract this clerical
persecution, Cedric found the mind of his friend
Athelstane so fully occupied, that it had no room
for another idea. And when Rowena's name was
mentioned the noble Athelstane prayed leave to
quaff a full goblet to her health, and that she might
soon be the bride of his kinsman Wilfred. It was
a desperate case therefore. There was obviously
no more to be made of Athelstane; or, as Wamba
Ivanhoe |
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 Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Swung with all his weight upon it,
Made a whirlpool in the water,
Whirled the birch canoe in circles,
Round and round in gurgling eddies,
Till the circles in the water
Reached the far-off sandy beaches,
Till the water-flags and rushes
Nodded on the distant margins.
But when Hiawatha saw him
Slowly rising through the water,
Lifting up his disk refulgent,
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