| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Critias by Plato: enclosure of gold, and there was Poseidon's own temple, which was covered
with silver, and the pinnacles with gold. The roof was of ivory, adorned
with gold and silver and orichalcum, and the rest of the interior was lined
with orichalcum. Within was an image of the god standing in a chariot
drawn by six winged horses, and touching the roof with his head; around him
were a hundred Nereids, riding on dolphins. Outside the temple were placed
golden statues of all the descendants of the ten kings and of their wives;
there was an altar too, and there were palaces, corresponding to the
greatness and glory both of the kingdom and of the temple.
Also there were fountains of hot and cold water, and suitable buildings
surrounding them, and trees, and there were baths both of the kings and of
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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 War in the Air by H. G. Wells: this. He went towards the bushes and cut himself a wand and
returned to the rocks and clambered out to a corner between the
eddy and the stream, By that time the sunset was over and the
bats were abroad--and he was wet with perspiration.
He prodded the floating blue-clad thing with his wand, failed,
tried again successfully as it came round, and as it went out
into the stream it turned over, the light gleamed on golden hair
and--it was Kurt!
It was Kurt, white and dead and very calm. There was no
mistaking him. There was still plenty of light for that. The
stream took him and he seemed to compose himself in its swift
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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 Firm of Nucingen by Honore de Balzac: slept in it. An Englishwoman might have visited his rooms and found
nothing 'improper' there. Finot, you have yet to learn the great law
of the 'Improper' that rules Britain. But, for the sake of the bond
between us--that bill for a thousand francs--I will just give you some
idea of it. I have been in England myself.--I will give him wit enough
for a couple of thousand," he added in an aside to Blondet.
"In England, Finot, you grow extremely intimate with a woman in the
course of an evening, at a ball or wherever it is; next day you meet
her in the street and look as though you knew her again--'improper.'--
At dinner you discover a delightful man beneath your left-hand
neighbor's dresscoat; a clever man; no high mightiness, no constraint,
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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 The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf: Hewet looked down too.
"It's wonderful," he said, as they widened and ceased. The freshness
and the newness seemed to him wonderful. He threw a pebble next.
There was scarcely any sound.
"But England," Rachel murmured in the absorbed tone of one whose eyes
are concentrated upon some sight. "What d'you want with England?"
"My friends chiefly," he said, "and all the things one does."
He could look at Rachel without her noticing it. She was still
absorbed in the water and the exquisitely pleasant sensations
which a little depth of the sea washing over rocks suggests.
He noticed that she was wearing a dress of deep blue colour, made of
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