| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Misalliance by George Bernard Shaw: JOHNNY. Dont talk rot, child. You know you simply make me pity you.
BENTLEY. "Romance of Business" indeed! The real romance of
Tarleton's business is the story that you understand anything about
it. You never could explain any mortal thing about it to me when I
asked you. "See what was done the last time": that was the beginning
and the end of your wisdom. Youre nothing but a turnspit.
JOHNNY. A what!
BENTLEY. A turnspit. If your father hadnt made a roasting jack for
you to turn, youd be earning twenty-four shillings a week behind a
counter.
JOHNNY. If you dont take that back and apologize for your bad
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: hinder me, from doing according to the laws."
Yet there were many unusual accidents that disturbed them and by
mere chance were thrown in their way. The first and chiefest
was the long stay of Caesar, though the day was far spent, and
his being detained at home by his wife, and forbidden by the
soothsayers to go forth, upon some defect that appeared in his
sacrifice. Another was this: There came a man up to Casca, one
of the company, and, taking him by the hand, "You concealed,"
said he, "the secret from us, but Brutus has told me all." At
which words when Casca was surprised, the other said laughing,
"How come you to be so rich of a sudden, that you should stand
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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 Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne: hour he left the rudder and furled his sails, whilst the sledge,
carried forward by the great impetus the wind had given it,
went on half a mile further with its sails unspread.
It stopped at last, and Mudge, pointing to a mass of roofs
white with snow, said: "We have got there!"
Arrived! Arrived at the station which is in daily communication,
by numerous trains, with the Atlantic seaboard!
Passepartout and Fix jumped off, stretched their stiffened limbs,
and aided Mr. Fogg and the young woman to descend from the sledge.
Phileas Fogg generously rewarded Mudge, whose hand Passepartout
warmly grasped, and the party directed their steps to the Omaha
Around the World in 80 Days |
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 Democracy In America, Volume 2 by Alexis de Toqueville: remembered that he only passed through the country of which he
speaks, without deviating widely from the line which he had
traced out for his journey.
[Footnote a: The 20th degree of longitude, according to the
meridian of Washington, agrees very nearly with the 97th degree
on the meridian of Greenwich.]
Appendix B
South America, in the region between the tropics, produces
an incredible profusion of climbing plants, of which the flora of
the Antilles alone presents us with forty different species.
Among the most graceful of these shrubs is the passion-flower,
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