| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Economist by Xenophon: their most admired works of art. But when it came to examining those
who bore the high-sounding title "beautiful and good," in order to
find out what conduct on their part justified their adoption of this
title, I found my soul eager with desire for intercourse with one of
them; and first of all, seeing that the epithet "beautiful" was
conjoined with that of "good," every beautiful person I saw, I must
needs approach in my endeavour to discover,[12] if haply I might
somewhere see the quality of good adhering to the quality of beauty.
But, after all, it was otherwise ordained. I soon enough seemed to
discover[13] that some of those who in their outward form were
beautiful were in their inmost selves the veriest knaves. Accordingly
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard: Now, though the rites of sacrifice never ceased, what with the roar
of cannon, the shouts of rage and terror from the Spaniards, the
hiss of musket balls, and the crackling of flames from houses which
they had fired to give them more light, and the sound of chanting,
the turmoil and confusion grew so great as to render the carrying
out of my purpose easier than I had hoped. By this time my friend,
the captain of the Otomie, was at my side, and with him several men
whom he could trust. Stooping down, with a few swift blows of a
knife I cut the ropes which bound the Spaniards. Then we gathered
ourselves into a knot, twelve of us or more, and in the centre of
the knot we set the five Spaniards. This done, I drew my sword and
Montezuma's Daughter |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Princess by Alfred Tennyson: Long lanes of splendour slanted o'er a press
Of snowy shoulders, thick as herded ewes,
And rainbow robes, and gems and gemlike eyes,
And gold and golden heads; they to and fro
Fluctuated, as flowers in storm, some red, some pale,
All open-mouthed, all gazing to the light,
Some crying there was an army in the land,
And some that men were in the very walls,
And some they cared not; till a clamour grew
As of a new-world Babel, woman-built,
And worse-confounded: high above them stood
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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 Dream Life and Real Life by Olive Schreiner: the chair. "She will be his wife, and have his children."
"Yes." The elder woman moved quickly. "One wants to have the child, and
lay its head on one's breast and feed it." She moved quickly. "It would
not matter if another woman bore it, if one had it to take care of." She
moved restlessly.
"Oh, no, I couldn't bear it to be hers. When I think of her I feel as if I
were dying; all my fingers turn cold; I feel dead. Oh, you were only his
friend; you don't know!"
The older spoke softly and quickly, "Don't you feel a little gentle to her
when you think she's going to be his wife and the mother of his child? I
would like to put my arms round her and touch her once, if she would let
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