| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Master and Man by Leo Tolstoy: Nikita did not reply.
'Now then, friend, stir yourself!' he shouted to the horse, but
in spite of the shake of the reins Mukhorty moved only at a
walk.
The snow in places was up to his knees, and the sledge moved by
fits and starts with his every movement.
Nikita took the whip that hung over the front of the sledge and
struck him once. The good horse, unused to the whip, sprang
forward and moved at a trot, but immediately fell back into an
amble and then to a walk. So they went on for five minutes.
It was dark and the snow whirled from above and rose from
Master and Man |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Euthydemus by Plato: irrelevant: (2) In their enquiring sympathetic tone, which encourages the
youth, instead of 'knocking him down,' after the manner of the two
Sophists: (3) In the absence of any definite conclusion--for while
Socrates and the youth are agreed that philosophy is to be studied, they
are not able to arrive at any certain result about the art which is to
teach it. This is a question which will hereafter be answered in the
Republic; as the conception of the kingly art is more fully developed in
the Politicus, and the caricature of rhetoric in the Gorgias.
The characters of the Dialogue are easily intelligible. There is Socrates
once more in the character of an old man; and his equal in years, Crito,
the father of Critobulus, like Lysimachus in the Laches, his fellow
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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 Mistress Wilding by Rafael Sabatini: him for Your Grace."
"Heaven help us!" exclaimed the Duke in petulant vexation. "Is no one
coming in?"
Ferguson swung a hand towards the still open window, drawing attention
to the sounds without.
"Does Your Grace not hear, that ye can ask?" he cried, almost
reproachfully; but they scarce heeded him, for Grey was inquiring if Mr.
Strode might be depended upon to join, and that was a matter that
claimed the greater attention.
"I think," said Battiscomb, "that he might have been depended upon."
"Might have been?" questioned Fletcher, speaking now for the first time
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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 Wheels of Chance by H. G. Wells: break down and reveal a human being beneath it. She is still in
that schoolgirl phase when a talkative old man is more
interesting than a tongue-tied young one, and when to be an
eminent mathematician, say, or to edit a daily paper, seems as
fine an ambition as any girl need aspire to. Bechaniel was to
have helped her to attain that in the most expeditious manner,
and here he is beside her, talking enigmatical phrases about
passion, looking at her with the oddest expression, and once, and
that was his gravest offence, offering to kiss her. At any rate
he has apologised. She still scarcely realises, you see, the
scrape she has got into.
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