| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Aesop's Fables by Aesop: he saw something black lying on the snow. When he came closer he
saw it was a Serpent to all appearance dead. But he took it up
and put it in his bosom to warm while he hurried home. As soon as
he got indoors he put the Serpent down on the hearth before the
fire. The children watched it and saw it slowly come to life
again. Then one of them stooped down to stroke it, but thc
Serpent raised its head and put out its fangs and was about to
sting the child to death. So the Woodman seized his axe, and with
one stroke cut the Serpent in two. "Ah," said he,
"No gratitude from the wicked."
The Bald Man and the Fly
Aesop's Fables |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne: jolly voice shouting a boisterous hurrah.
Presently afterward the secretary of the Gun Club appeared at
the top of the cone in a triumphant attitude. He had grown fat!
CHAPTER XXIV
THE TELESCOPE OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS
On the 20th of October in the preceding year, after the close of
the subscription, the president of the Gun Club had credited the
Observatory of Cambridge with the necessary sums for the
construction of a gigantic optical instrument. This instrument
was designed for the purpose of rendering visible on the surface
of the moon any object exceeding nine feet in diameter.
From the Earth to the Moon |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Common Sense by Thomas Paine: is not done in time, it will be too late to do any thing,
and we shall fall into a state, in which, neither RECONCILIATION
nor INDEPENDANCE will be practicable. The king and his worthless
adherents are got at their old game of dividing the Continent,
and there are not wanting among us, Printers, who will be busy
in spreading specious falsehoods. The artful and hypocritical letter
which appeared a few months ago in two of the New York papers,
and likewise in two others, is an evidence that there are men
who want either judgment or honesty.
It is easy getting into holes and corners and talking of reconciliation:
But do such men seriously consider, how difficult the task is, and how
Common Sense |
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 A Woman of No Importance by Oscar Wilde: so much that she left her father's house with him one morning. She
loved him so much, and he had promised to marry her! He had
solemnly promised to marry her, and she had believed him. She was
very young, and - and ignorant of what life really is. But he put
the marriage off from week to week, and month to month. - She
trusted in him all the while. She loved him. - Before her child
was born - for she had a child - she implored him for the child's
sake to marry her, that the child might have a name, that her sin
might not be visited on the child, who was innocent. He refused.
After the child was born she left him, taking the child away, and
her life was ruined, and her soul ruined, and all that was sweet,
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