| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen: The fire seemed to burn low, and the chilly air of the morning
crept into the room; Villiers got up with a glance over his
shoulder, and, shivering slightly, went to bed.
A few days later he saw at his club a gentleman of his
acquaintance, named Austin, who was famous for his intimate
knowledge of London life, both in its tenebrous and luminous
phases. Villiers, still full of his encounter in Soho and its
consequences, thought Austin might possibly be able to shed some
light on Herbert's history, and so after some casual talk he
suddenly put the question:
"Do you happen to know anything of a man named Herbert
The Great God Pan |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Arizona Nights by Stewart Edward White: a warrant for keepin' open out of hours! That was a sweet
warrant to take out in Willets, anyway! Mrs. Schmidt always
claimed that she say that deal played, and that, while they were
talkin' perfectly peacable, Cook let drive from the hip at about
two yards' range. Anyway, we decided we needed another marshal.
Nothin' else was ever done, for the Vigilantes hadn't been
formed, and your individual and decent citizen doesn't care to be
marked by a gun of that stripe. Leastwise, unless he wants to go
in for bad-man methods and do a little ambusheein' on his own
account.
The point is, that these yere bad men are a low-down, miserable
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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 Charmides by Plato: inferential; that is to say, the members of a sentence are either opposed
to one another, or one of them expresses the cause or effect or condition
or reason of another. The two tendencies may be called the horizontal and
perpendicular lines of the language; and the opposition or inference is
often much more one of words than of ideas. But modern languages have
rubbed off this adversative and inferential form: they have fewer links of
connection, there is less mortar in the interstices, and they are content
to place sentences side by side, leaving their relation to one another to
be gathered from their position or from the context. The difficulty of
preserving the effect of the Greek is increased by the want of adversative
and inferential particles in English, and by the nice sense of tautology
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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 Complete Angler by Izaak Walton: give us a drink; and be as quick as you can, for I believe we are all very
hungry. Well, brother Peter and Coridon, to you both! Come, drink: and
then tell me what luck of fish: we two have caught but ten bouts, of
which my scholar caught three. Look! here's eight; and a brace we gave
away. We have had a most pleasant day for fishing and talking, and are
returned home both weary and hungry; and now meat and rest will be
pleasant.
Peter. And Coridon and I have not had an unpleasant day: and yet I
have caught but five bouts; for, indeed, we went to a good honest ale-
house, and there we played at shovel-board half the day; all the time
that it rained we were there, and as merry as they that fished. And I am
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