| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Europeans by Henry James: This latter measure, however, was superfluous; for the Baroness
had inspected, narrowly, these charming young ladies.
"I feel an intimate conviction that our cousins are like that," said Felix.
The Baroness hoped so, but this is not what she said.
"They are very pretty," she said, "but they are mere little girls.
Where are the women--the women of thirty?"
"Of thirty-three, do you mean?" her brother was going to ask;
for he understood often both what she said and what she did not say.
But he only exclaimed upon the beauty of the sunset,
while the Baroness, who had come to seek her fortune, reflected that
it would certainly be well for her if the persons against whom she
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy: formed a perpetual and brilliant court round the fascinating young
actress of the Comedie Francaise, and she glided through republican,
revolutionary, bloodthirsty Paris like a shining comet with a trail
behind her of all that was most distinguished, most interesting, in
intellectual Europe.
Then the climax came. Some smiled indulgently and called it
an artistic eccentricity, others looked upon it as a wise provision,
in view of the many events which were crowding thick and fast in Paris
just then, but to all, the real motive of that climax remained a
puzzle and a mystery. Anyway, Marguerite St. Just married Sir Percy
Blakeney one fine day, just like that, without any warning to her
The Scarlet Pimpernel |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Aeroplanes and Dirigibles of War by Frederick A. Talbot: practised in the waters of the earth are inapplicable to the
atmosphere. Movement by, or in, water is governed by the depth
of channels, and these may be rendered impassable or dangerous to
negotiate by the planting of mines. A passing ship or submarine
may circumvent these explosive obstructions, but such a
successful manoeuvre is generally a matter of good luck. So far
as submarines are concerned the fact must not be over looked that
movements in the sea are carried out under blind conditions: the
navigator is unable to see where he is going; the optic faculty
is rendered nugatory. Contrast the disability of the submarine
with the privileges of its consort in the air. The latter is
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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 Princess by Alfred Tennyson: All these male thunderbolts: what is it ye fear?
Peace! there are those to avenge us and they come:
If not,--myself were like enough, O girls,
To unfurl the maiden banner of our rights,
And clad in iron burst the ranks of war,
Or, falling, promartyr of our cause,
Die: yet I blame you not so much for fear:
Six thousand years of fear have made you that
From which I would redeem you: but for those
That stir this hubbub--you and you--I know
Your faces there in the crowd--tomorrow morn
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