| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Sanitary and Social Lectures by Charles Kingsley: tenderness, benevolence at horse-play, mistaking kicks for
caresses. They do not like it, they will not respond to it, save
in parishes which have been demoralised by officious and
indiscriminate benevolence, and where the last remaining virtues
of the poor, savage self-help and independence, have been
exchanged (as I have too often seen them exchanged) for organised
begging and hypocrisy.
I would that you would all read, ladies, and consider well the
traits of an opposite character which have just come to light (to
me, I am ashamed to say, for the first time) in the Biography of
Sidney Smith. The love and admiration which that truly brave 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 Mrs. Warren's Profession by George Bernard Shaw: Naturally, the poorer girls in the gallery will believe in the
beauty, in the exquisite dresses, and the luxurious living, and
will see that there is no real necessity for the consumption, the
suicide, or the ejectment: mere pious forms, all of them, to save
the Censor's face. Even if these purely official catastrophes
carried any conviction, the majority of English girls remain so
poor, so dependent, so well aware that the drudgeries of such
honest work as is within their reach are likely enough to lead
them eventually to lung disease, premature death, and domestic
desertion or brutality, that they would still see reason to
prefer the primrose path to the strait path of virtue, since
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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 Captain Stormfield by Mark Twain: postman delivering letters, or a policeman walking his beat, in
plain clothes. But they ain't to FLY with! The wings are for
show, not for use. Old experienced angels are like officers of the
regular army - they dress plain, when they are off duty. New
angels are like the militia - never shed the uniform - always
fluttering and floundering around in their wings, butting people
down, flapping here, and there, and everywhere, always imagining
they are attracting the admiring eye - well, they just think they
are the very most important people in heaven. And when you see one
of them come sailing around with one wing tipped up and t'other
down, you make up your mind he is saying to himself: 'I wish Mary
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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 The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson: me, but come, Sir Lion-driver, look at me - am I so homely - come!"
And she made bright eyes at him.
"Ye are something smallish, indeed" - began Dick.
And here again she interrupted him, this time with a ringing peal
of laughter that completed his confusion and surprise.
"Smallish!" she cried. "Nay, now, be honest as ye are bold; I am a
dwarf, or little better; but for all that - come, tell me! - for
all that, passably fair to look upon; is't not so?"
"Nay, madam, exceedingly fair," said the distressed knight,
pitifully trying to seem easy.
"And a man would be right glad to wed me?" she pursued.
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