| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield: unbuttoned. The beach was strewn with little heaps of clothes and shoes;
the big summer hats, with stones on them to keep them from blowing away,
looked like immense shells. It was strange that even the sea seemed to
sound differently when all those leaping, laughing figures ran into the
waves. Old Mrs. Fairfield, in a lilac cotton dress and a black hat tied
under the chin, gathered her little brood and got them ready. The little
Trout boys whipped their shirts over their heads, and away the five sped,
while their grandma sat with one hand in her knitting-bag ready to draw out
the ball of wool when she was satisfied they were safely in.
The firm compact little girls were not half so brave as the tender,
delicate-looking little boys. Pip and Rags, shivering, crouching down,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Mrs. Warren's Profession by George Bernard Shaw: us.
VIVIE. Strangle me, perhaps.
MRS WARREN. No: I'd bring you up to be a real daughter to me,
and not what you are now, with your pride and your prejudices and
the college education you stole from me: yes, stole: deny it if
you can: what was it but stealing? I'd bring you up in my own
house, I would.
VIVIE [quietly] In one of your own houses.
MRS WARREN [screaming] Listen to her! listen to how she spits on
her mother's grey hairs! Oh, may you live to have your own
daughter tear and trample on you as you have trampled on me. And
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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 Rig Veda: as he
mourned his trouble.
15 When in the time of night, in Khela's battle, a leg was
severed
like a wild bird's pinion,
Straight ye gave Vispali a leg of iron that she might move
what time
the conflict opened.
16 His father robbed Rjrasva of his eyesight who for the she-wolf
slew
a hundred wethers.
The Rig Veda |
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 Travels and Researches in South Africa by Dr. David Livingstone: formerly alight@mercury.interpath.net). To assure a high quality text,
the original was typed in (manually) twice and electronically compared.
[Note on text: Italicized words or phrases are CAPITALIZED.
Some obvious errors have been corrected.]
Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa.
Also called, Travels and Researches in South Africa;
or, Journeys and Researches in South Africa.
By David Livingstone [British (Scot) Missionary and Explorer--1813-1873.]
David Livingstone was born in Scotland, received his medical degree
from the University of Glasgow, and was sent to South Africa
by the London Missionary Society. Circumstances led him to try to meet
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