| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain: entered a dense wood, picked his pathless way to the
centre of it, and sat down on a mossy spot under a
spreading oak. There was not even a zephyr stirring;
the dead noonday heat had even stilled the songs of
the birds; nature lay in a trance that was broken by no
sound but the occasional far-off hammering of a wood-
pecker, and this seemed to render the pervading silence
and sense of loneliness the more profound. The boy's
soul was steeped in melancholy; his feelings were in
happy accord with his surroundings. He sat long with
his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hands,
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer |
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 Hellenica by Xenophon: proceeded to convene the Demos, as if there were to be a new
constitution, based on the principle of equality.[48] When the
convention met, he bade them appoint generals: they might choose whom
they liked. Whereupon they elected Euphron himself, Hippodamus,
Cleander, Acrisius, and Lysander. When these matters were arranged he
appointed Adeas, his own son, over the foreign brigade, in place of
the former commander, Lysimenes, whom he removed. His next step was
promptly to secure the fidelity of the foreign mercenaries by various
acts of kindness, and to attach others; and he spared neither the
public nor the sacred moneys for this object. He had, to aid him,
further, the property of all the citizens whom he exiled on the ground
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