| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Rape of Lucrece by William Shakespeare: Until her husband's welfare she did hear;
Whereat she smiled with so sweet a cheer,
That had Narcissus seen her as she stood,
Self-love had never drown'd him in the flood.
'Why hunt I then for colour or excuses?
All orators are dumb when beauty pleadeth;
Poor wretches have remorse in poor abuses;
Love thrives not in the heart that shadows dreadeth:
Affection is my captain, and he leadeth;
And when his gaudy banner is display'd,
The coward fights and will not be dismay'd.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte: my solution of the mystery?"
I reflected, and in truth it appeared to me the only possible one:
satisfied I was not, but to please him I endeavoured to appear so--
relieved, I certainly did feel; so I answered him with a contented
smile. And now, as it was long past one, I prepared to leave him.
"Does not Sophie sleep with Adele in the nursery?" he asked, as I
lit my candle.
"Yes, sir."
"And there is room enough in Adele's little bed for you. You must
share it with her to-night, Jane: it is no wonder that the incident
you have related should make you nervous, and I would rather you did
Jane Eyre |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Finished by H. Rider Haggard: place I may hide where the white men cannot find me. It must be
told into my ear alone, since I dare not trust the matter to any
other, at any rate until I must. They are traitors every man of
them, yes, even those who seem to be most faithful. The fallen
man has no friends, least of all if he chances to be a king.
Only the dead will keep his counsel. Tell me of the place I
need."
"Dingaan, who was before you, once asked this same thing of me, O
King, when he was flying from Panda your father, and the Boers.
I gave him advice that he did not take, but sought a refuge of
his own upon a certain Ghost-mountain. What happened to him
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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 Tales of the Klondyke by Jack London: "Come, Dave, you must see. She is not your kind. There is no
race affinity. She is an aborigine, sprung from the soil, yet
close to the soil, and impossible to lift from the soil. Born
savage, savage she will die. But we--you and I--the dominant,
evolved race--the salt of the earth and the masters thereof! We
are made for each other. The supreme call is of kind, and we are
of kind. Reason and feeling dictate it. Your very instinct
demands it. That you cannot deny. You cannot escape the
generations behind you. Yours is an ancestry which has survived
for a thousand centuries, and for a hundred thousand centuries,
and your line must not stop here. It cannot. Your ancestry will
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