| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Letters of Two Brides by Honore de Balzac: at eight o'clock and be still bare-footed at nine!
Then comes the getting up. The operation of dressing begins. I slip on
my dressing-gown, turn up my sleeves, and don the mackintosh apron;
with Mary's assistance, I wash and scrub my two little blossoms. I am
sole arbiter of the temperature of the bath, for a good half of
children's crying and whimpering comes from mistakes here. The moment
has arrived for paper fleets and glass ducks, since the only way to
get children thoroughly washed is to keep them well amused. If you
knew the diversions that have to be invented before these despotic
sovereigns will permit a soft sponge to be passed over every nook and
cranny, you would be awestruck at the amount of ingenuity and
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: would often strip me naked from top to toe, and lay me at full
length in their bosoms; wherewith I was much disgusted because,
to say the truth, a very offensive smell came from their skins;
which I do not mention, or intend, to the disadvantage of those
excellent ladies, for whom I have all manner of respect; but I
conceive that my sense was more acute in proportion to my
littleness, and that those illustrious persons were no more
disagreeable to their lovers, or to each other, than people of
the same quality are with us in England. And, after all, I found
their natural smell was much more supportable, than when they
used perfumes, under which I immediately swooned away. I cannot
Gulliver's Travels |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Mirror of the Sea by Joseph Conrad: wool. Their names attained the dignity of household words. On
Sundays and holidays the citizens trooped down, on visiting bent,
and the lonely officer on duty solaced himself by playing the
cicerone - especially to the citizenesses with engaging manners and
a well-developed sense of the fun that may be got out of the
inspection of a ship's cabins and state-rooms. The tinkle of more
or less untuned cottage pianos floated out of open stern-ports till
the gas-lamps began to twinkle in the streets, and the ship's
night-watchman, coming sleepily on duty after his unsatisfactory
day slumbers, hauled down the flags and fastened a lighted lantern
at the break of the gangway. The night closed rapidly upon the
The Mirror of the Sea |
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 War and the Future by H. G. Wells: interest in a day-long vigil. Here we are told imperatively to
come right in at once, and we do.
All communication trenches are tortuous and practically endless.
On an offensive front they have vertical sides of unsupported
earth and occasional soakaways for rain, covered by wooden
gratings, and they go on and on and on. At rare intervals they
branch, and a notice board says "To Regent Street," or "To Oxford
Street," or some such lie. It is all just trench. For a time
you talk, but talking in single file soon palls. You cease to
talk, and trudge. A great number of telephone wires come into
the trench and cross and recross it. You cannot keep clear of
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