| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Golden Sayings of Epictetus by Epictetus: Once more:--
Crito, if this be God's will, so let it be. As for me,
Anytus and Meletus can indeed put me to death, but injure me,
never!
CLXXXV
We shall then be like Socrates, when we can indite hymns of
praise to the Gods in prison.
CLXXXVI
It is hard to combine and unite these two qualities, the
carefulness of one who is affected by circumstances, and the
intrepidity of one who heeds them not. But it is not impossible:
The Golden Sayings of Epictetus |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lemorne Versus Huell by Elizabeth Drew Stoddard: the door, and so there was quite a little sensation, which spread
its ripples till Aunt Eliza was reached. She sent for William,
whose only excuse was "dampness."
"Uxbridge knew my carriage, of course," she said, with a
complacent voice.
"He knew me," I replied.
"You do not look like the Huells."
"I look precisely like the young woman to whom he was introduced
by Mr. Van Horn."
"Oh ho!"
"He thought it unsafe for me to come alone under William's
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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 Sesame and Lilies by John Ruskin: these. I am not at present, mind you, speaking of persons set apart
in any priestly or pastoral office, to deliver creeds to us, or
doctrines; but of men who try to discover and set forth, as far as
by human intellect is possible, the facts of the other world.
Divines may perhaps teach us how to arrive there, but only these two
poets have in any powerful manner striven to discover, or in any
definite words professed to tell, what we shall see and become
there; or how those upper and nether worlds are, and have been,
inhabited.
And what have they told us? Milton's account of the most important
event in his whole system of the universe, the fall of the angels,
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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 Adventure by Jack London: horses."
"But you can't go alone. Take two of the men."
"Then I'll go on," she said. "It would be foolish to weaken the
pursuit, and I am certainly not tired."
The trail bent to the right as though the runaways had changed
their mind and headed for the Balesuna. But the trail still
continued to bend to the right till it promised to make a loop, and
the point of intersection seemed to be the edge of the plantation
where the horses had been left. Crossing one of the quiet jungle
spaces, where naught moved but a velvety, twelve-inch butterfly,
they heard the sound of shots.
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