| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Sentimental Journey by Laurence Sterne: unintelligible to me, as my apostrophe to the monk had been to him.
He told me it was some poor Abbe in one of the upper loges, who, he
supposed, had got planted perdu behind a couple of grisettes in
order to see the opera, and that the parterre espying him, were
insisting upon his holding up both his hands during the
representation. - And can it be supposed, said I, that an
ecclesiastic would pick the grisettes' pockets? The old French
officer smiled, and whispering in my ear, opened a door of
knowledge which I had no idea of.
Good God! said I, turning pale with astonishment - is it possible,
that a people so smit with sentiment should at the same time be so
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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 Lesser Bourgeoisie by Honore de Balzac: and carry it through if it is feasible, and leave your interests in my
hands."
"Thuillier, member of the municipal council, owner of an estate with a
rental of forty thousand francs a year, with the cross of the Legion
of honor and the author of a political work, grave, serious,
important, will be deputy at the forthcoming general election. But,
between ourselves, little aunt, one couldn't devote one's self so
utterly except for a father-in-law."
"You are right."
"Though I have no fortune I shall have doubled yours; and if this
affair goes through discreetly, others will turn up."
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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 The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf: and walked very slowly to the table where the morning papers
were laid, but she did not put out her hand to take one; she stood
still, thinking, with her head a little sunk upon her shoulders.
She looked curiously old, and from the way in which she stood,
a little hunched together and very massive, you could see what
she would be like when she was really old, how she would sit
day after day in her chair looking placidly in front of her.
Other people began to come into the room, and to pass her, but she
did not speak to any of them or even look at them, and at last,
as if it were necessary to do something, she sat down in a chair,
and looked quietly and fixedly in front of her. She felt
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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 Laches by Plato: NICIAS: Precisely.
SOCRATES: And now let me see whether you agree with Laches and myself as
to a third point.
NICIAS: What is that?
SOCRATES: I will tell you. He and I have a notion that there is not one
knowledge or science of the past, another of the present, a third of what
is likely to be best and what will be best in the future; but that of all
three there is one science only: for example, there is one science of
medicine which is concerned with the inspection of health equally in all
times, present, past, and future; and one science of husbandry in like
manner, which is concerned with the productions of the earth in all times.
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