| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Summer by Edith Wharton: own child, and tears welled into her aching eyes, and
ran down over her face. If she had been less
exhausted, less burdened with his weight, she would
have sprung up then and there and fled away....
The grim hours of the night dragged themselves slowly
by, and at last the sky paled and dawn threw a cold
blue beam into the room. She lay in her corner staring
at the dirty floor, the clothes-line hung with decaying
rags, the old woman huddled against the cold stove, and
the light gradually spreading across the wintry world,
and bringing with it a new day in which she would have
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Little Britain by Washington Irving: the grasshopper actually lie, cheek by jole, in the yard of his
workshop.
"Others," as Mr. Skryme is accustomed to say, "may go star-
gazing, and look for conjunctions in the heavens, but here is a
conjunction on the earth, near at home, and under our own eyes,
which surpasses all the signs and calculations of astrologers."
Since these portentous weathercocks have thus laid their heads
together, wonderful events had already occurred. The good
old king, notwithstanding that he had lived eighty-two years,
had all at once given up the ghost; another king had mounted
the throne; a royal duke had died suddenly,--another, in
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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 Alcibiades I by Plato: always to speak the truth; the third, or most temperate, forbids him to
allow any pleasure to be lord over him, that he may be accustomed to be a
freeman and king indeed,--lord of himself first, and not a slave; the most
valiant trains him to be bold and fearless, telling him that if he fears he
is to deem himself a slave; whereas Pericles gave you, Alcibiades, for a
tutor Zopyrus the Thracian, a slave of his who was past all other work. I
might enlarge on the nurture and education of your rivals, but that would
be tedious; and what I have said is a sufficient sample of what remains to
be said. I have only to remark, by way of contrast, that no one cares
about your birth or nurture or education, or, I may say, about that of any
other Athenian, unless he has a lover who looks after him. And if you cast
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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 Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. Wells: but he only turned a shade paler, and followed the captain
to the bulwarks.
"Look you here, Captain," he said; "that man of mine is not to be
ill-treated. He has been hazed ever since he came aboard."
For a minute, alcoholic fumes kept the captain speechless.
"Blasted Sawbones!" was all he considered necessary.
I could see that Montgomery had one of those slow, pertinacious tempers
that will warm day after day to a white heat, and never again
cool to forgiveness; and I saw too that this quarrel had been
some time growing. "The man's drunk," said I, perhaps officiously;
"you'll do no good."
The Island of Doctor Moreau |
