| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Rescue by Joseph Conrad: the face, as if to watch the effect of that confession.
"Were you very near that explosion?" asked the young man with
sympathetic curiosity and seeking for some sign on Lingard's
person. But there was nothing. Not a single hair of the Captain's
head seemed to have been singed.
"Near," muttered Lingard. "It might have been my head." He
pressed it with both hands, then let them fall. "What about that
man?" he asked, brusquely. "Where did he come from? . . . I
suppose he is dead now," he added in an envious tone.
"No, sir. He must have as many lives as a cat," answered Carter.
"I will tell you how it was. As I said before I wasn't going to
The Rescue |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Legend of Montrose by Walter Scott: all, that he succeeded in letting Sir Duncan Campbell know, that
the cavalier who was to accompany him was waiting in readiness,
and that all was prepared for his return to Inverary. Sir Duncan
Campbell rose up very indignantly; the affront which this message
implied immediately driving out of his recollection the
sensibility which had been awakened by the music.
"I little expected this," he said, looking indignantly at Angus
M'Aulay. "I little thought that there was a Chief in the West
Highlands, who, at the pleasure of a Saxon, would have bid the
Knight of Ardenvohr leave his castle, when the sun was declining
from the meridian, and ere the second cup had been filled. But
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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 Inaugural Address by John F. Kennedy: This is a retranscription of one of the first Project
Gutenberg Etexts, offically dated November 22, 1973--
and now officially re-released on November 22, 1993--
on the 30th anniversary of his assassination.
***The Project Gutenberg Etext of Kennedy's Inaugural Address**
#STARTMARK#
JFK's Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961, 12:11 EST
We observe today not a victory of party but a celebration of freedom. . .
symbolizing an end as well as a beginning. . .signifying renewal
as well as change for I have sworn before you and Almighty God
the same solemn oath our forbears prescribed nearly a century
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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 Alexandria and her Schools by Charles Kingsley: unconsciously justify. And yet he is rapidly losing sight of the real
eternal human germs of truth round which those superstitions clustered,
and is really further from truth and reason than old Homer or Hesiod,
because further from the simple, universal, everyday facts, and
relations, and duties of man, which are, after all, among the most
mysterious, and also among the most sacred objects which man can
contemplate.
It was not wonderful, however, that Neoplatonism took the course it did.
Spirit, they felt rightly, was meant to rule matter; it was to be freed
from matter only for that very purpose. No one could well deny that.
The philosopher, as he rose and became, according to Plotinus, a god, or
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