| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: dissatisfaction, and had three children, two sons and one daughter;
but my wife dying, and my nephew coming home with good success from
a voyage to Spain, my inclination to go abroad, and his
importunity, prevailed, and engaged me to go in his ship as a
private trader to the East Indies; this was in the year 1694.
In this voyage I visited my new colony in the island, saw my
successors the Spaniards, had the old story of their lives and of
the villains I left there; how at first they insulted the poor
Spaniards, how they afterwards agreed, disagreed, united,
separated, and how at last the Spaniards were obliged to use
violence with them; how they were subjected to the Spaniards, how
Robinson Crusoe |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Study of a Woman by Honore de Balzac: slipped into this page of the glorious book of his life.
When Madame de Listomere saw her husband ushering in Eugene she could
not help blushing. The young baron saw that sudden color. If the most
humble-minded man retains in the depths of his soul a certain conceit
of which he never rids himself, any more than a woman ever rids
herself of coquetry, who shall blame Eugene if he did say softly in
his own mind: "What! that fortress, too?" So thinking, he posed in his
cravat. Young men may not be grasping but they like to get a new coin
in their collection.
Monsieur de Listomere seized the "Gazette de France," which he saw on
the mantelpiece, and carried it to a window, to obtain, by
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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 A Footnote to History by Robert Louis Stevenson: huge possibilities of mischief. He took up the Scanlon outrage,
the atrocity of the threatened pigs; and with that poor instrument
- I am sure, to his own wonder - drove Tamasese out of Mulinuu. It
was "an intrigue," Becker complains. To be sure it was; but who
was Becker to be complaining of intrigue?
On the 7th Leary laid before Fritze the following conundrum: "As
the natives of Mulinuu appear to be under the protection of the
Imperial German naval guard belonging to the vessel under your
command, I have the honour to request you to inform me whether or
not they are under such protection? Amicable relations," pursued
the humorist, "amicable relations exist between the government of
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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 Pierrette by Honore de Balzac: Garceland, was the son-in-law of Monsieur Guepin; the curate, Abbe
Peroux, was own brother to Madame Julliard; the judge, Monsieur
Tiphaine junior, was brother to Madame Guenee, who signed herself
"/nee/ Tiphaine."
The queen of the town was the beautiful Madame Tiphaine junior, only
daughter of Madame Roguin, the rich wife of a former notary in Paris,
whose name was never mentioned. Clever, delicate, and pretty, married
in the provinces to please her mother, who for special reasons did not
want her with her, and took her from a convent only a few days before
the wedding, Melanie Tiphaine considered herself an exile in Provins,
where she behaved to admiration. Handsomely dowered, she still had
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