| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from End of the Tether by Joseph Conrad: in the distance, down to the level of his knees. He put
his hands behind his back. He would now consider
calmly the discretion of it before saying the final word
to-morrow. His feet scrunched the gravel loudly--the
discretion of it. It would have been easier to appraise
had there been a workable alternative. The honesty of
it was indubitable: he meant well by the fellow; and
periodically his shadow leaped up intense by his side on
the trunks of the trees, to lengthen itself, oblique and
dim, far over the grass--repeating his stride.
The discretion of it. Was there a choice? He seemed
End of the Tether |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Desert Gold by Zane Grey: crested, upheaved lava that would have been almost impassable even
without its silver coating of choya cactus. There were benches
and ledges and ridges bare and glistening in the sun. From the
crests of these Yaqui's searching falcon gaze roved near and far
for signs of sheep, and Gale used his glass on the reaches of lava
that slanted steeply upward to the corrugated peaks, and down over
endless heave and roll and red-waved slopes. The heat smoked up
from the lava, and this, with the red color and the shiny choyas,
gave the impression of a world of smoldering fire.
Farther along the slope Yaqui halted and crawled behind projections
to a point commanding a view over an extraordinary section of
Desert Gold |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbot: to the Isosceles Hospital; similarly, if you are a Triangle,
or Square, or even a Polygon, born with any Irregularity,
you must be taken to one of the Regular Hospitals to have your
disease cured; otherwise you will end your days in the State Prison
or by the angle of the State Executioner.
All faults or defects, from the slightest misconduct to the most
flagitious crime, Pantocyclus attributed to some deviation from
perfect Regularity in the bodily figure, caused perhaps
(if not congenital) by some collision in a crowd; by neglect
to take exercise, or by taking too much of it; or even by a sudden
change of temperature, resulting in a shrinkage or expansion
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions |
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 Commission in Lunacy by Honore de Balzac: the bright coloring, the clear eye, the transparent flesh which reveal
habits of purity, regularity of life, and a due proportion of work and
play. They both had black hair and blue eyes, and a twist in their
nose, like their father; but their mother, perhaps, had transmitted to
them the dignity of speech, of look and mien, which are hereditary in
the Blamont-Chauvrys. Their voices, as clear as crystal, had an
emotional quality, the softness which proves so seductive; they had,
in short, the voice a woman would willingly listen to after feeling
the flame of their looks. But, above all, they had the modesty of
pride, a chaste reserve, a TOUCH-ME-NOT which at a maturer age might
have seemed intentional coyness, so much did their demeanor inspire a
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