| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Juana by Honore de Balzac: the men who are instinctively compelled to start again the moment they
arrive, and whose vital object seems to be to come and go incessantly,
like the wheels mentioned in Holy Writ. Perhaps he felt the need of
flying from himself. Without wearying of Juana, without blaming Juana,
his passion for her, rendered tranquil by time, allowed his natural
character to assert itself. Henceforth his days of gloom were more
frequent, and he often gave way to southern excitement. The more
virtuous a woman is and the more irreproachable, the more a man likes
to find fault with her, if only to assert by that act his legal
superiority. But if by chance she seems really imposing to him, he
feels the need of foisting faults upon her. After that, between man
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Essays & Lectures by Oscar Wilde: will be a joy to you for all time.
This is the spirit of our movement in England, and this is the
spirit in which we would wish you to work, making eternal by your
art all that is noble in your men and women, stately in your lakes
and mountains, beautiful in your own flowers and natural life. We
want to see that you have nothing in your houses that has not been
a joy to the man who made it, and is not a joy to those that use
it. We want to see you create an art made by the hands of the
people to please the hearts of the people too. Do you like this
spirit or not? Do you think it simple and strong, noble in its
aim, and beautiful in its result? I know you do.
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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 Merry Men by Robert Louis Stevenson: imitate before the negro the action of the man whom I had seen the
day before taking bearings with the compass at Sandag. He
understood me at once, and, taking the imitation out of my hands,
showed me where the boat was, pointed out seaward as if to indicate
the position of the schooner, and then down along the edge of the
rock with the words 'Espirito Santo,' strangely pronounced, but
clear enough for recognition. I had thus been right in my
conjecture; the pretended historical inquiry had been but a cloak
for treasure-hunting; the man who had played on Dr. Robertson was
the same as the foreigner who visited Grisapol in spring, and now,
with many others, lay dead under the Roost of Aros: there had their
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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 Heroes by Charles Kingsley: to meet that cruel Sinis; and in a pine-wood at last he met
him, where the Isthmus was narrowest and the road ran between
high rocks. There he sat upon a stone by the wayside, with a
young fir-tree for a club across his knees, and a cord laid
ready by his side; and over his head, upon the fir-tops, hung
the bones of murdered men.
Then Theseus shouted to him, 'Holla, thou valiant pine-
bender, hast thou two fir-trees left for me?'
And Sinis leapt to his feet, and answered, pointing to the
bones above his head, 'My larder has grown empty lately, so I
have two fir-trees ready for thee.' And he rushed on
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