| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Black Beauty by Anna Sewell: than the poor beasts they were bargaining about. There were poor old men,
trying to get a horse or a pony for a few pounds, that might drag about
some little wood or coal cart. There were poor men trying to sell
a worn-out beast for two or three pounds, rather than have the greater loss
of killing him. Some of them looked as if poverty and hard times
had hardened them all over; but there were others that I would have
willingly used the last of my strength in serving; poor and shabby,
but kind and human, with voices that I could trust.
There was one tottering old man who took a great fancy to me, and I to him,
but I was not strong enough -- it was an anxious time!
Coming from the better part of the fair, I noticed a 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 Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley: For the mind of the savage, crushed by the sight of the white man's
superior skill, and wealth, and wisdom, loses at first its self-
respect; while his body, pampered with easily obtained luxuries,
instead of having to win the necessaries of life by heavy toil,
loses its self-helpfulness; and with self-respect and self-help
vanish all the savage virtues, few and flimsy as they are, and the
downward road toward begging and stealing, sottishness and
idleness, is easy, if not sure.
And down that road, it really seemed at first, that poor Ayacanora
was walking fast. For the warrior-prophetess of the Omaguas soon
became, to all appearance, nothing but a very naughty child; and
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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 Don Quixote by Miquel de Cervantes: I'll leave off being one and go home."
"That's your affair," returned Samson, "but to suppose that I am
going home until I have given Don Quixote a thrashing is absurd; and
it is not any wish that he may recover his senses that will make me
hunt him out now, but a wish for the sore pain I am in with my ribs
won't let me entertain more charitable thoughts."
Thus discoursing, the pair proceeded until they reached a town where
it was their good luck to find a bone-setter, with whose help the
unfortunate Samson was cured. Tom Cecial left him and went home, while
he stayed behind meditating vengeance; and the history will return
to him again at the proper time, so as not to omit making merry with
Don Quixote |
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 Laches by Plato: SOCRATES: Let us, Nicias and Laches, comply with the request of Lysimachus
and Melesias. There will be no harm in asking ourselves the question which
was first proposed to us: 'Who have been our own instructors in this sort
of training, and whom have we made better?' But the other mode of carrying
on the enquiry will bring us equally to the same point, and will be more
like proceeding from first principles. For if we knew that the addition of
something would improve some other thing, and were able to make the
addition, then, clearly, we must know how that about which we are advising
may be best and most easily attained. Perhaps you do not understand what I
mean. Then let me make my meaning plainer in this way. Suppose we knew
that the addition of sight makes better the eyes which possess this gift,
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