| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Chouans by Honore de Balzac: "/this/," he said, "and you have come in the nick of time to hear it.
I am no speaker of gilded phrases, and I shall say things plainly. I
commanded five hundred men during the late war. Since we have taken up
arms again I have raised a thousand heads as hard as mine for the
service of the king. It is now seven years that I have risked my life
in the good cause; I don't blame you, but I say that the laborer is
worthy of his hire. Now, to begin with, I demand that I be called
Monsieur de Cottereau. I also demand that the rank of colonel shall be
granted me, or I send in my adhesion to the First Consul! Let me tell
you, monsieur le marquis, my men and I have a devilishly importunate
creditor who must be satisfied--he's here!" he added, striking his
The Chouans |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Boys' Life of Abraham Lincoln by Helen Nicolay: and all who wished might enter. That remark of his, "I know how I
would feel if I were in their place," explained it all. His early
experience of life had drilled him well for these ordeals. He had
read deeply in the book of human nature, and could see the hidden
signs of falsehood and deceit and trickery from which the faces
of some of his visitors were not free; but he knew, too, the
hard, practical side of life, the hunger, cold, storms, sickness
and misfortune that the average man must meet in his struggle
with the world. More than all, he knew and sympathized with that
hope deferred which makes the heart sick.
Not a few men and women came, sad-faced and broken-hearted, to
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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 In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield:
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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 Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: goods whither we pleased. This I liked very well, and resolved to
wait; besides, as our particular persons were not obnoxious, so if
any English or Dutch ships came thither, perhaps we might have an
opportunity to load our goods, and get passage to some other place
in India nearer home. Upon these hopes we resolved to continue
here; but, to divert ourselves, we took two or three journeys into
the country.
First, we went ten days' journey to Nankin, a city well worth
seeing; they say it has a million of people in it: it is regularly
built, and the streets are all straight, and cross one another in
direct lines. But when I come to compare the miserable people of
Robinson Crusoe |
