| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad: frigid dignity that the two mates were only too glad to escape from
the cabin as soon as decency permitted; and all the time the dual
working of my mind distracted me almost to the point of insanity.
I was constantly watching myself, my secret self, as dependent
on my actions as my own personality, sleeping in that bed,
behind that door which faced me as I sat at the head of the table.
It was very much like being mad, only it was worse because one was
aware of it.
I had to shake him for a solid minute, but when at last he opened his eyes
it was in the full possession of his senses, with an inquiring look.
"All's well so far," I whispered. "Now you must vanish into the bathroom."
The Secret Sharer |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Anthem by Ayn Rand: What agony must have been theirs before
that which they saw coming and could not
stop! Perhaps they cried out in protest and
in warning. But men paid no heed to their
warning. And they, these few, fought a
hopeless battle, and they perished with
their banners smeared by their own blood.
And they chose to perish, for they knew.
To them, I send my salute across the centuries,
and my pity.
Theirs is the banner in my hand. And I wish
Anthem |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia by Samuel Johnson: first form them, we know them to be absurd, but familiarise them by
degrees, and in time lose sight of their folly."
CHAPTER XLV - THEY DISCOURSE WITH AN OLD MAN.
THE evening was now far past, and they rose to return home. As
they walked along the banks of the Nile, delighted with the beams
of the moon quivering on the water, they saw at a small distance an
old man whom the Prince had often heard in the assembly of the
sages. "Yonder," said he, "is one whose years have calmed his
passions, but not clouded his reason. Let us close the
disquisitions of the night by inquiring what are his sentiments of
his own state, that we may know whether youth alone is to struggle
|
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 Island Nights' Entertainments by Robert Louis Stevenson: was damned, and a good riddance; but I never could get him to see
it my way. Then they made me a litter of poles and carried me down
to the station. Mr. Tarleton set my leg, and made a regular
missionary splice of it, so that I limp to this day. That done, he
took down my evidence, and Uma's, and Maea's, wrote it all out
fine, and had us sign it; and then he got the chiefs and marched
over to Papa Randall's to seize Case's papers.
All they found was a bit of a diary, kept for a good many years,
and all about the price of copra, and chickens being stolen, and
that; and the books of the business and the will I told you of in
the beginning, by both of which the whole thing (stock, lock, and
|
