| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Atheist's Mass by Honore de Balzac: see coming to fire his pistol at you point blank.
"You yourself, my dear boy, are clever enough to make
acquaintance before long with the odious and incessant warfare
waged by mediocrity against the superior man. If you should drop
five-and-twenty louis one day, you will be accused of gambling on
the next, and your best friends will report that you have lost
twenty-five thousand. If you have a headache, you will be
considered mad. If you are a little hasty, no one can live with
you. If, to make a stand against this armament of pigmies, you
collect your best powers, your best friends will cry out that you
want to have everything, that you aim at domineering, at tyranny.
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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 Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare: GREMIO.
I marvel Cambio comes not all this while.
[Enter PETRUCHIO, KATHERINA, VINCENTIO, and ATTENDANTS.]
PETRUCHIO.
Sir, here's the door; this is Lucentio's house:
My father's bears more toward the market-place;
Thither must I, and here I leave you, sir.
VINCENTIO.
You shall not choose but drink before you go.
I think I shall command your welcome here,
And by all likelihood some cheer is toward.
The Taming of the Shrew |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Agesilaus by Xenophon: and horses in large numbers for the chase and warfare, he persuaded
his sister Cynisca to rear chariot horses,[9] and thus by her
victory[10] showed that to keep a stud of that sort, however much it
might be a mark of wealth, was hardly a proof of manly virtue. And
surely in the following opinion we may discern plainly the generosity
of him who entertained it. To win victories over private persons in a
chariot race does not add one tittle to a man's renown. He, rather,
who holds his city dear beyond all things else, who has himself sunk
deep into the heart of her affections, who has obtained to himself all
over the world a host of friends and those the noblest, who can outdo
his country and comrades alike in the race of kindliness, and his
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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 Dynamiter by Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny Van De Grift Stevenson: soon, to be laid low! Some day, some night, from this coign
of vantage, you shall perhaps be startled by the detonation
of the judgment gun - not sharp and empty like the crack of
cannon, but deep-mouthed and unctuously solemn. Instantly
thereafter, you shall behold the flames break forth. Ay,' he
cried, stretching forth his hand, 'ay, that will be a day of
retribution. Then shall the pallid constable flee side by
side with the detected thief. Blaze!' he cried, 'blaze,
derided city! Fall, flatulent monarchy, fall like Dagon!'
With these words his foot slipped upon the lead; and but for
Somerset's quickness, he had been instantly precipitated into
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