| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin: that when the said contributors shall have met and chosen their
managers and treasurer, and shall have raised by their contributions
a capital stock of ----- value (the yearly interest of which is to be
applied to the accommodating of the sick poor in the said hospital,
free of charge for diet, attendance, advice, and medicines), and
shall make the same appear to the satisfaction of the speaker of
the Assembly for the time being, that then it shall and may be lawful
for the said speaker, and be is hereby required, to sign an order
on the provincial treasurer for the payment of two thousand pounds,
in two yearly payments, to the treasurer of the said hospital,
to be applied to the founding, building, and finishing of the same."
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Exiles by Honore de Balzac: watch of the City of Paris, who had been able to do some service to
their Reverences the Chapter of the Cathedral; and in return the
Bishop leased him twenty-five perches of land, with exemptions from
all feudal dues or taxes on the buildings he might erect.
Seven years before the beginning of this narrative, Joseph Tirechair,
one of the sternest of Paris constables, as his name (Tear Flesh)
would indicate, had, thanks to his share of the fines collected by him
for delinquencies committed within the precincts of the Cite, had been
able to build a house on the bank of the Seine just at the end of the
Rue du Port-Saint-Landry. To protect the merchandise landed on the
strand, the municipality had constructed a sort of break-water of
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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 Rescue by Joseph Conrad: of them so strongly that she couldn't help saying in a dreamy
whisper:
"Did you mean to crush the life out of me?"
He answered in the same tone:
"I could not have done it. You are too strong. Was I rough? I
didn't mean to be. I have been often told I didn't know my own
strength. You did not seem able to get through that opening and
so I caught hold of you. You came away in my hands quite easily.
Suddenly I thought to myself, 'now I will make sure.'"
He paused as if his breath had failed him. Mrs. Travers dared not
make the slightest movement. Still in the pose of one in quest of
The Rescue |
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 Ann Veronica by H. G. Wells: reinstatement, she went on to the Imperial College to forget her
muddle of problems for a time, if she could, in the presence of
Capes.
Part 7
For a time the biological laboratory was full of healing virtue.
Her sleepless night had left her languid but not stupefied, and
for an hour or so the work distracted her altogether from her
troubles.
Then, after Capes had been through her work and had gone on, it
came to her that the fabric of this life of hers was doomed to
almost immediate collapse; that in a little while these studies
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