| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Rescue by Joseph Conrad: within the horizon that one might have fancied oneself come to
the end of time. Black and toylike in the clear depths and the
final stillness of the evening the brig and the schooner lay
anchored in the middle of the main channel with their heads swung
the same way. Lingard, with his chin on his breast and his arms
folded, moved slowly here and there about the poop. Close and
mute like his shadow, Carter, at his elbow, followed his
movements. He felt an anxious solicitude. . . .
It was a sentiment perfectly new to him. He had never before felt
this sort of solicitude about himself or any other man. His
personality was being developed by new experience, and as he was
The Rescue |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Mansion by Henry van Dyke: inspection--every page correct, and showing a handsome balance.
But isn't it a mistake not to allow us to make our own mistakes,
to learn for ourselves, to live our own lives? Must we be
always working for 'the balance,' in one thing or another?
I want to be myself--to get outside of this everlasting,
profitable 'plan'--to let myself go, and lose myself for a while
at least--to do the things that I want to do, just because
I want to do them."
"My boy," said his mother, anxiously, "you are not going to do
anything
wrong or foolish? You know the falsehood of that old proverb
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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 U. S. Project Trinity Report by Carl Maag and Steve Rohrer: o The TR-3 (Physics) Group, responsible for experiments concerning
measurements of ionizing radiation
o The TR-4 Group, responsible for meteorology
o The TR-5 Group, responsible for spectrographic and photographic
measurements
o The TR-6 Group, responsible for the airblast-airborne condenser
gauges
o The TR-7 (Medical) Group, responsible for the radiological safety
and general health of the Project TRINITY participants.
Each of these groups was divided into several units. Individuals were
also assigned special tasks outside their groups, such as
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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 Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield: "What are you looking at, my grandma? Why do you keep stopping and sort of
staring at the wall?"
Kezia and her grandmother were taking their siesta together. The little
girl, wearing only her short drawers and her under-bodice, her arms and
legs bare, lay on one of the puffed-up pillows of her grandma's bed, and
the old woman, in a white ruffled dressing-gown, sat in a rocker at the
window, with a long piece of pink knitting in her lap. This room that they
shared, like the other rooms of the bungalow, was of light varnished wood
and the floor was bare. The furniture was of the shabbiest, the simplest.
The dressing-table, for instance, was a packing-case in a sprigged muslin
petticoat, and the mirror above was very strange; it was as though a little
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