| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy: But upon the whole the novelty attracted him.
She was so sweet and sensitive that she feared his silence
betokened something in his brain of the nature of an enemy to her.
"What are you thinking of that makes those lines come in your
forehead?" she asked. "I did not mean to offend you by speaking
of the time being premature as yet."
Touched by the genuine loving-kindness which had lain at the
foundation of these words, and much moved, Winterborne turned his
face aside, as he took her by the hand. He was grieved that he
had criticised her.
"You are very good, dear Grace," he said, in a low voice. "You
The Woodlanders |
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: sed etiam tela nostros deficerent, atque hostes acrius instarent
languidioribusque nostris vallum scindere et fossas complere coepissent,
resque esset iam ad extremum perducta casum, P. Sextius Baculus, primi
pili centurio, quem Nervico proelio compluribus confectum vulneribus
diximus, et item C. Volusenus, tribunus militum, vir et consilii magni et
virtutis, ad Galbam accurrunt atque unam esse spem salutis docent, si
eruptione facta extremum auxilium experirentur. Itaque convocatis
centurionibus celeriter milites certiores facit, paulisper intermitterent
proelium ac tantum modo tela missa exciperent seque ex labore reficerent,
post dato signo ex castris erumperent, atque omnem spem salutis in virtute
ponerent.
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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 Poems by T. S. Eliot: And in short, I was afraid.
And would it have been worth it, after all,
After the cups, the marmalade, the tea,
Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,
Would it have been worth while,
To have bitten off the matter with a smile,
To have squeezed the universe into a ball
To roll it toward some overwhelming question,
To say: "I am Lazarus, come from the dead,
Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all"--
If one, settling a pillow by her head,
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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 Euthydemus by Plato: beings: so that I do not know how I can advise the youth to study
philosophy.
SOCRATES: Dear Crito, do you not know that in every profession the
inferior sort are numerous and good for nothing, and the good are few and
beyond all price: for example, are not gymnastic and rhetoric and money-
making and the art of the general, noble arts?
CRITO: Certainly they are, in my judgment.
SOCRATES: Well, and do you not see that in each of these arts the many are
ridiculous performers?
CRITO: Yes, indeed, that is very true.
SOCRATES: And will you on this account shun all these pursuits yourself
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