| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Youth by Joseph Conrad: chaps expected to get down in the usual way. When
we did I heard them saying to each other, 'Well, I
thought we would come down overboard, in a lump--
sticks and all--blame me if I didn't.' 'That's what I
was thinking to myself,' would answer wearily another
battered and bandaged scarecrow. And, mind, these were
men without the drilled-in habit of obedience. To an
onlooker they would be a lot of profane scallywags
without a redeeming point. What made them do it--
what made them obey me when I, thinking consciously
how fine it was, made them drop the bunt of the foresail
Youth |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Phantasmagoria and Other Poems by Lewis Carroll: He gazed upon the sleeping sea,
And joyed in its tranquillity,
And in that silence dead, but she
To muse a little space did seem,
Then, like the echo of a dream,
Harked back upon her threadbare theme.
Still an attentive ear he lent
But could not fathom what she meant:
She was not deep, nor eloquent.
He marked the ripple on the sand:
The even swaying of her hand
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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 Mosses From An Old Manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne: sweet ones--have dug little graves in the garden, and bidden me,
the sole guest to an infant's funeral. By the sympathy of your
human hearts for sin ye shall scent out all the places--whether
in church, bedchamber, street, field, or forest--where crime has
been committed, and shall exult to behold the whole earth one
stain of guilt, one mighty blood spot. Far more than this. It
shall be yours to penetrate, in every bosom, the deep mystery of
sin, the fountain of all wicked arts, and which inexhaustibly
supplies more evil impulses than human power--than my power at
its utmost--can make manifest in deeds. And now, my children,
look upon each other."
Mosses From An Old Manse |
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 An International Episode by Henry James: "Of course I will let him know we are here, because I think he would
be hurt--justly enough--if we should go away without seeing him.
It is fair to give him a chance to come and thank me for the kindness
we showed him. But I don't want to seem eager."
"Neither do I," said Bessie with a little laugh.
"Though I confess," added her sister, "that I am curious to see
how he will behave."
"He behaved very well at Newport."
"Newport is not London. At Newport he could do as he liked;
but here it is another affair. He has to have an eye to consequences."
"If he had more freedom, then, at Newport," argued Bessie, "it is the more
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