| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Stories From the Old Attic by Robert Harris: permanent delirium in each native, and which was passed on to
subsequent generations. The delirium increased with age, and most
of the adult natives showed it by eating dirt, sleeping on dunghills,
pummeling anthills with rocks even as the ants bit them severely, and
jumping out of trees onto their heads. This last maneuver caused the
natives to stagger around senseless for days, or simply to lie
unconscious and bleeding in the sun and rain. All these symptoms
together prevented the natives from caring for their personal lives,
and so they lived in deplorable squalor, with their huts falling
apart, and their children and themselves half starved and wholly naked.
Another odd effect of the mental distraction was an unnatural craving
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Rescue by Joseph Conrad: their new friendship with Tengga."
His heart was sinking with every minute, the very air was growing
heavier with the sense of oncoming disaster, on that night that
was neither war nor peace and whose only voice was the voice of
Tengga's envoy, insinuating in tone though menacing in words.
"No, that cannot be," said that voice. "But, Tuan, verily Tengga
himself is ready to come on board here to talk with you. He is
very ready to come and indeed, Tuan, he means to come on board
here before very long."
"Yes, with fifty war-canoes filled with the ferocious rabble of
the Shore of Refuge," Jaffir was heard commenting, sarcastically,
The Rescue |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Records of a Family of Engineers by Robert Louis Stevenson: however, to heave in the hempen cable, and see the state of
the clinch or iron ring of the chain-cable. But the vessel
rolled at such a rate that the seamen could not possibly keep
their feet at the windlass nor work the hand-spikes, though it
had been several times attempted since the gale took off.
About twelve noon, however, the vessel's motion was
observed to be considerably less, and the sailors were enabled
to walk upon deck with some degree of freedom. But, to the
astonishment of every one, it was soon discovered that the
floating light was adrift! The windlass was instantly manned,
and the men soon gave out that there was no strain upon the
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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 Riverman by Stewart Edward White: walking boss would trudge continually the river trail, or ride the
logs down stream, holding the correlation of these many units. Orde
himself would drive up and down the river, overseeing the whole plan
of campaign, throwing the camps forward, concentrating his forces
here, spreading them elsewhere, keeping accurately in mind the
entire situation so that he could say with full confidence: "Open
Dam Number One for three hours at nine o'clock; Dam Number Two for
two hours and a half at ten thirty," and so on down the line; sure
that the flood waters thus released would arrive at the right
moment, would supplement each other, and would so space themselves
as to accomplish the most work with the least waste. In that one
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