| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Cromwell by William Shakespeare: That is bestowed upon this thriftless lad.
Well, had I bound him to some honest trade,
This had not been, but it was his mother's doing,
To send him to the University.
How? build a house where now this cottage stands,
As fair as that at Sheene!--[Aside.] He shall not hear me.
A good boy Tom! I con thee thank Tom!
Well said Tom! gramarcies Tom!--
Into your work, knaves; hence, you saucy boy.
[Exit all but young Cromwell.]
CROMWELL.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Beauty and The Beast by Bayard Taylor: children,--the only ones who never made fun of him,--all that was
a delightful prospect. He could never, NEVER forget himself, as
he had seen other young fellows do; but to remember himself
agreeably was certainly the next best thing.
Jacob was already a well-grown man of twenty-three, and would have
made a good enough appearance but for the stoop in his shoulders,
and the drooping, uneasy way in which he carried his head. Many a
time when he was alone in the fields or woods he had
straightened himself, and looked courageously at the buts of the
oak-trees or in the very eyes of the indifferent oxen; but, when a
human face drew near, some spring in his neck seemed to snap, some
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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 The Riverman by Stewart Edward White: position as to strengthen the swing when the latter should be shut.
It was a slow job. Each pile had to be taken from the raft at the
stern of the scow, erected in the "carrier," and pounded into place
by the heavy hammer raised and let drop in the derrick at the bow.
Long before the task was finished, the logs in the temporary booms
had begun to slide atop one another, to cross and tangle, until at
last the river bed inside the booms was filled with a jam of
formidable dimensions. From beneath it the water boiled in eddies.
Orde, looking at it, roused himself to sudden activity.
"Get a move on," he advised Captain Aspinwall of the driver. "If
that jam breaks on us, we want to be ready; and if it don't break
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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 Theaetetus by Plato: fail of their highest interests?
THEODORUS: Quite true.
SOCRATES: Then we may fairly argue against your master, that he must admit
one man to be wiser than another, and that the wiser is a measure: but I,
who know nothing, am not at all obliged to accept the honour which the
advocate of Protagoras was just now forcing upon me, whether I would or
not, of being a measure of anything.
THEODORUS: That is the best refutation of him, Socrates; although he is
also caught when he ascribes truth to the opinions of others, who give the
lie direct to his own opinion.
SOCRATES: There are many ways, Theodorus, in which the doctrine that every
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