| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Wife, et al by Anton Chekhov: his thoughts great and small have at such times significance as
symptoms and nothing more.
I am vanquished. If it is so, it is useless to think, it is
useless to talk. I will sit and wait in silence for what is to
come.
In the morning the corridor attendant brings me tea and a copy of
the local newspaper. Mechanically I read the advertisements on
the first page, the leading article, the extracts from the
newspapers and journals, the chronicle of events. . . . In the
latter I find, among other things, the following paragraph: "Our
distinguished savant, Professor Nikolay Stepanovitch So-and-so,
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Footnote to History by Robert Louis Stevenson: to no good end whether of peace or war; they could but exasperate;
they might prove, in a moment, and when least expected, ruinous.
To those who knew how nearly it had come to fighting, and who
considered the probable result, the future looked ominous. And
fear was mingled with annoyance in the minds of the Anglo-Saxon
colony. On the 24th, a public meeting appealed to the British and
American consuls. At half-past seven in the evening guards were
landed at the consulates. On the morrow they were each fortified
with sand-bags; and the subjects informed by proclamation that
these asylums stood open to them on any alarm, and at any hour of
the day or night. The social bond in Apia was dissolved. The
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The King of the Golden River by John Ruskin: again, he saw a little dog lying on the rocks, gasping for breath--
just as Hans had seen it on the day of his ascent. And Gluck
stopped and looked at it, and then at the Golden River, not five
hundred yards above him; and he thought of the dwarf's words, that
no one could succeed except in his first attempt; and he tried to
pass the dog, but it whined piteously and Gluck stopped again.
"Poor beastie," said Gluck, "it'll be dead when I come down
again, if I don't help it." Then he looked closer and closer at
it, and its eye turned on him so mournfully that he could not stand
it. "Confound the king and his gold too," said Gluck, and he
opened the flask and poured all the water into the dog's mouth.
|
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 Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence: 'Oh, any time he's around. Often in the morning. Well, goodbye Lady
Chatterley! And do come again. It was so lovely having you.'
Connie climbed the fence into the narrow path between the dense,
bristling young firs. Mrs Flint went running back across the pasture,
in a sun-bonnet, because she was really a schoolteacher. Constance
didn't like this dense new part of the wood; it seemed gruesome and
choking. She hurried on with her head down, thinking of the Flints'
baby. It was a dear little thing, but it would be a bit bow-legged like
its father. It showed already, but perhaps it would grow out of it. How
warm and fulfilling somehow to have a baby, and how Mrs Flint had
showed it off! She had something anyhow that Connie hadn't got, and
Lady Chatterley's Lover |
