| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbot: the Third Dimension; and I am sure I did not say one word about
'Upward, not Northward', for that would be such nonsense,
you know. How could a thing move Upward, and not Northward?
Upward and not Northward! Even if I were a baby, I could not be
so absurd as that. How silly it is! Ha! ha! ha!"
"Not at all silly," said I, losing my temper; "here for example,
I take this Square," and, at the word, I grasped a moveable Square,
which was lying at hand -- "and I move it, you see, not Northward but
-- yes, I move it Upward -- that is to say, not Northward,
but I move it somewhere -- not exactly like this, but somehow --"
Here I brought my sentence to an inane conclusion, shaking the Square
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Elixir of Life by Honore de Balzac: upon me, I drink deep of life--a whole lifetime of pleasure and
of love!"
The woman who sat next to Juan Belvidero looked at him with a
feverish glitter in her eyes. She was silent. Then--"I should
need no hired bravo to kill my lover if he forsook me!" she cried
at last, and laughed, but the marvelously wrought gold comfit box
in her fingers was crushed by her convulsive clutch.
"When are you to be Grand Duke?" asked the sixth. There was the
frenzy of a Bacchante in her eyes, and her teeth gleamed between
the lips parted with a smile of cruel glee.
"Yes, when is that father of yours going to die?" asked the
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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 Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie: desperate through jealousy could have done. Some time in the
evening she unbolted the door leading into Mademoiselle Cynthia's
room. Possibly she applied oil to the hinges, for I found that
it opened quite noiselessly when I tried it. She put off her
project until the early hours of the morning as being safer,
since the servants were accustomed to hearing her move about her
room at that time. She dressed completely in her land kit, and
made her way quietly through Mademoiselle Cynthia's room into
that of Mrs. Inglethorp."
He paused a moment, and Cynthia interrupted:
"But I should have woken up if anyone had come through my room?"
The Mysterious Affair at Styles |
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 Hiero by Xenophon: at such a crisis it will not do for us to entrust the affair to easy-
goers.
[17] Or, "curb the over-proud in sap and blood."
Further than that, the man who is a tyrant must have mercenaries, and
of all the burdens which the citizens are called upon to bear there is
none more onerous than this, since nothing will induce them to believe
these people are supported by the tyrant to add to his and their
prestige,[18] but rather for the sake of his own selfishness and
greed.
[18] Reading with Breit. {eis timas}, or if the vulg. {isotimous},
transl. "as equal merely to themselves in privilege"; or if with
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