| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens: It was some check upon their transport to find in this person an
entire stranger, but they appealed to him, nevertheless, and
besought him, in impassioned language, to restore them to their
friends.
'For what other purpose am I here?' he answered, closing the door,
and standing with his back against it. 'With what object have I
made my way to this place, through difficulty and danger, but to
preserve you?'
With a joy for which it was impossible to find adequate expression,
they embraced each other, and thanked Heaven for this most timely
aid. Their deliverer stepped forward for a moment to put the light
Barnaby Rudge |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from King James Bible: PSA 9:15 The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made: in the
net which they hid is their own foot taken.
PSA 9:16 The LORD is known by the judgment which he executeth: the
wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Higgaion. Selah.
PSA 9:17 The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that
forget God.
PSA 9:18 For the needy shall not alway be forgotten: the expectation of
the poor shall not perish for ever.
PSA 9:19 Arise, O LORD; let not man prevail: let the heathen be judged
in thy sight.
PSA 9:20 Put them in fear, O LORD: that the nations may know themselves
King James Bible |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Alexandria and her Schools by Charles Kingsley: always have their admirers on earth, as long as that variety of the
human species exists for whose especial behoof Theodorus held that laws
were made; and the whole form of thought met with great approbation in
after years at Rome, where Epicurus carried it to its highest
perfection. After that, under the pressure of a train of rather severe
lessons, which Gibbon has detailed in his "Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire," little or nothing was heard of it, save sotto voce, perhaps, at
the Papal courts of the sixteenth century. To revive it publicly, or at
least as much of it as could be borne by a world now for seventeen
centuries Christian, was the glory of the eighteenth century. The moral
scheme of Theodorus has now nearly vanished among us, at least as a
|
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 Emma by Jane Austen: I know he would be hurt by my failing in such a mark of respect to him
on the present occasion. I shall, therefore, set off to-morrow.'--
If he would say so to her at once, in the tone of decision becoming
a man, there would be no opposition made to his going."
"No," said Emma, laughing; "but perhaps there might be some made to his
coming back again. Such language for a young man entirely dependent,
to use!--Nobody but you, Mr. Knightley, would imagine it possible.
But you have not an idea of what is requisite in situations directly
opposite to your own. Mr. Frank Churchill to be making such
a speech as that to the uncle and aunt, who have brought him up,
and are to provide for him!--Standing up in the middle of the room,
Emma |
