| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley: I've put him in; and if you want him let out again, you must come
and do it yourself, for my conscience is against it, sir. If the
Lord's enemies are delivered into my hand, I'm answerable, sir,"
went on Yeo as Amyas hurried out with him. "'Tis written, 'If any
let one of them go, his life shall be for the life of him.'"
So Amyas ran out, pulled back the cart grumbling, opened the door,
and began a string of apologies to--his cousin Eustace.
Yes, here he was, with such a countenance, half foolish, half
venomous, as reynard wears when the last spadeful of earth is
thrown back, and he is revealed sitting disconsolately on his tail
within a yard of the terriers' noses.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Sarrasine by Honore de Balzac: my arm and pulled me away toward a boudoir. Everybody, men and women,
made room for us to pass. Having reached the further end of the suite
of reception-rooms, we entered a small semi-circular cabinet. My
companion threw herself on a divan, breathing fast with terror, not
knowing where she was.
"You are mad, madame," I said to her.
"But," she rejoined, after a moment's silence, during which I gazed at
her in admiration, "is it my fault? Why does Madame de Lanty allow
ghosts to wander round her house?"
"Nonsense," I replied; "you are doing just what fools do. You mistake
a little old man for a spectre."
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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 Talisman by Walter Scott: so low that the noisy bluster of this new-made Duke's displeasure
should alarm her or her monarch?"
"I have looked forth from my mountain turret upon the starry host
of heaven, as each in his midnight circuit uttered wisdom to
another, and knowledge to the few who can understand their voice.
There sits an enemy in thy House of Life, Lord King, malign at
once to thy fame and thy prosperity--an emanation of Saturn,
menacing thee with instant and bloody peril, and which, but thou
yield thy proud will to the rule of thy duty, will presently
crush thee even in thy pride."
"Away, away--this is heathen science," said the King. "Christians
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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 Rewards and Fairies by Rudyard Kipling: 'How? Eh? Oh, I remember! Amber,' said Puck.
'And would have put them on my neck. I said, "No, I am
content. What does my one eye matter if my other eye sees fat
sheep and fat children running about safely?" My Mother's
brother said to them, "I told you he would never take such
things." Then they began to sing a song in the Old Tongue - The
Song of Tyr. I sang with them, but my Mother's brother said,
"This is your song, O Buyer of the Knife. Let us sing it, Tyr."
'Even then I did not understand, till I saw that - that no man
stepped on my shadow; and I knew that they thought me to be a
God, like the God Tyr, who gave his right hand to conquer a
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