| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Mistress Wilding by Rafael Sabatini: silence. Mr. Trenchard was sauntering towards them, his left eye
tucked farther under his hat than usual, his hands behind him.
"`Tis a thirsty evening," he informed them.
"Go, tell Richard so," said Wilding, who knew naught of Richard's
altered ways.
"I've thought of it; but haply he's sensitive on the score of drinking
with me again. He has done it twice to his undoing."
"He'll do it a third time, no doubt," said Mr. Wilding curtly, and
Trenchard, taking the hint, turned with a shrug, and went up the lawn
towards the house. He found Richard in the porch, where he had
lingered fearfully, waiting for news. At sight of Mr. Trenchard's grim,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Complete Angler by Izaak Walton: Scoffer still; but I account them enemies to me and all that love Virtue
and Angling.
And for you that have heard many grave, serious men pity Anglers; let
me tell you, Sir, there be many men that are by others taken to be
serious and grave men, whom we contemn and pity Men that are taken
to be grave, because nature hath made them of a sour complexion;
money-getting men, men that spend all their time, first in getting, and
next, in anxious care to keep it; men that are condemned to be rich, and
then always busy or discontented: for these poor rich-men, we Anglers
pity them perfectly, and stand in no need to borrow their thoughts to
think ourselves so happy. No, no, Sir, we enjoy a contentedness above
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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 To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf: 8
Thinking no harm, for the family would not come, never again, some
said, and the house would be sold at Michaelmas perhaps, Mrs McNab
stooped and picked a bunch of flowers to take home with her. She laid
them on the table while she dusted. She was fond of flowers. It was a
pity to let them waste. Suppose the house were sold (she stood arms
akimbo in front of the looking-glass) it would want seeing to--it
would. There it had stood all these years without a soul in it. The
books and things were mouldy, for, what with the war and help being
hard to get, the house had not been cleaned as she could have wished.
It was beyond one person's strength to get it straight now. She was
To the Lighthouse |
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 God The Invisible King by H. G. Wells: H. G. W.
Dunmow,
May, 1917.
GOD THE INVISIBLE KING
CHAPTER THE FIRST
THE COSMOGONY OF MODERN RELIGION
1. MODERN RELIGION HAS NO FOUNDER
Perhaps all religions, unless the flaming onset of Mohammedanism be
an exception, have dawned imperceptibly upon the world. A little
while ago and the thing was not; and then suddenly it has been found
in existence, and already in a state of diffusion. People have
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