| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Pool in the Desert by Sara Jeanette Duncan: apparently not observing; and an Assistant Secretary in the Home
Department began to fancy that his patience in teaching the three
dachshund puppies tricks was really appreciated. He was an on-
coming Assistant Secretary, with other conspicuous parts, and
hitherto his time had been too valuable to spend upon ladies'
dachshunds. Mrs. Innes had selected him well. There came an
evening when, at a dance at the Lieutenant-Governor's, Mrs. Innes
was so absorbed in what the Assistant Secretary was saying to her,
as she passed on his arm, that she did not see Captain Drake in the
corridor at all, although he had carefully broken an engagement to
walk with Kitty Vesey that very afternoon, as the beginning of
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Caesar's Commentaries in Latin by Julius Caesar: castris ad aciem instruendam natura oportuno atque idoneo, quod is collis
ubi castra posita erant paululum ex planitie editus tantum adversus in
latitudinem patebat quantum loci acies instructa occupare poterat, atque
ex utraque parte lateris deiectus habebat et in fronte leniter fastigatus
paulatim ad planitiem redibat, ab utroque latere eius collis transversam
fossam obduxit circiter passuum CCCC et ad extremas fossas castella
constituit ibique tormenta conlocavit, ne, cum aciem instruxisset, hostes,
quod tantum multitudine poterant, ab lateribus pugnantes suos circumvenire
possent. Hoc facto, duabus legionibus quas proxime conscripserat in
castris relictis ut, si quo opus esset, subsidio duci possent, reliquas VI
legiones pro castris in acie constituit. Hostes item suas copias ex
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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 Unseen World and Other Essays by John Fiske: an inversion which is perhaps not more unidiomatic than Mr.
Cary's,--
"The cemetery on this part obtain
With Epicurus all his followers,
Who with the body make the spirit die";
but which is advantageously avoided by Mr. Wright,--
"Here Epicurus hath his fiery tomb,
And with him all his followers, who maintain
That soul and body share one common doom";
and is still better rendered by Dr. Parsons,--
"Here in their cemetery on this side,
The Unseen World and Other Essays |
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 Charmides and Other Poems by Oscar Wilde: And flinging wide the cedar-carven door
Beheld an awful image saffron-clad
And armed for battle! the gaunt Griffin glared
From the huge helm, and the long lance of wreck and ruin flared
Like a red rod of flame, stony and steeled
The Gorgon's head its leaden eyeballs rolled,
And writhed its snaky horrors through the shield,
And gaped aghast with bloodless lips and cold
In passion impotent, while with blind gaze
The blinking owl between the feet hooted in shrill amaze.
The lonely fisher as he trimmed his lamp
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