| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Sophist by Plato: STRANGER: And purification was to leave the good and to cast out whatever
is bad?
THEAETETUS: True.
STRANGER: Then any taking away of evil from the soul may be properly
called purification?
THEAETETUS: Yes.
STRANGER: And in the soul there are two kinds of evil.
THEAETETUS: What are they?
STRANGER: The one may be compared to disease in the body, the other to
deformity.
THEAETETUS: I do not understand.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Personal Record by Joseph Conrad: were not a safe thing to believe in my statement. This pathetic
mistrust in the favourable issue of any sort of affair touched me
deeply, and I added:
"He doesn't seem a bit the worse for the passage. He's a nice
pony, too."
Almayer was not to be cheered up; for all answer he cleared his
throat and looked down again at his feet. I tried to close with
him on another tack.
"By Jove!" I said. "Aren't you afraid of catching pneumonia or
bronchitis or some thing, walking about in a singlet in such a
wet fog?"
A Personal Record |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Idylls of the King by Alfred Tennyson: 'Sister, farewell for ever,' and again
'Farewell, sweet sister,' parted all in tears.
Then rose the dumb old servitor, and the dead,
Oared by the dumb, went upward with the flood--
In her right hand the lily, in her left
The letter--all her bright hair streaming down--
And all the coverlid was cloth of gold
Drawn to her waist, and she herself in white
All but her face, and that clear-featured face
Was lovely, for she did not seem as dead,
But fast asleep, and lay as though she smiled.
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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 Dynamiter by Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny Van De Grift Stevenson: the boxes with a lingering regret, 'I should have liked to
make quite certain. I cannot but suspect my underlings of
some mismanagement; it may be fond, but yet I cherish that
idea: it may be the weakness of a man of science, but yet,'
he cried, rising into some energy, 'I will never, I cannot if
I try, believe that my poor dynamite has had fair usage!'
'Five minutes!' said Somerset, glancing with horror at the
timepiece. 'If you do not instantly buckle to your bag, I
leave you.'
'A few necessaries,' returned Zero, 'only a few necessaries,
dear Somerset, and you behold me ready.'
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