| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Economist by Xenophon: surveillance."
When, then (I asked), Ischomachus, how fared it? was your wife
disposed at all to lend a willing ear to what you told her?[20]
[20] Lit. "when she heard did she give ear at all?"
Bless you,[21] Socrates (he answered), what did she do but forthwith
answer me, I formed a wrong opinion if I fancied that, in teaching her
the need of minding our property, I was imposing a painful task upon
her. A painful task it might have been[22] (she added), had I bade her
neglect her personal concerns! But to be obliged to fulfil the duty of
attending to her own domestic happiness,[23] that was easy. After all
it would seem to be but natural (added he); just as any honest[24]
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde: shoulder.]
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. And you would be happy living somewhere alone
with me, abroad perhaps, or in the country away from London, away
from public life? You would have no regrets?
LADY CHILTERN. Oh! none, Robert.
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [Sadly.] And your ambition for me? You used
to be ambitious for me.
LADY CHILTERN. Oh, my ambition! I have none now, but that we two
may love each other. It was your ambition that led you astray. Let
us not talk about ambition.
[LORD GORING returns from the conservatory, looking very pleased with
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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 Confidence by Henry James: Blanche was wonderfully pretty; she was very graceful,
innocent, amusing. Since Gordon had determined to marry a
little goose, he had chosen the animal with extreme discernment.
It had quite the plumage of a swan, and it sailed along
the stream of life with an extraordinary lightness of motion.
He asked himself indeed at times whether Blanche were really
so silly as she seemed; he doubted whether any woman could be
so silly as Blanche seemed. He had a suspicion at times that,
for ends of her own, she was playing a part--the suspicion
arising from the fact that, as usually happens in such cases,
she over-played it. Her empty chatter, her futility,
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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 A Second Home by Honore de Balzac: of a shower of sleet. He crept along as slowly as he could; and then,
at the risk of being taken up by the police, he stood still below the
window to hear the mother and daughter, while watching them through
the largest of the holes in the yellow muslin curtains, which were
eaten away by wear as a cabbage leaf is riddled by caterpillars. The
inquisitive stranger saw a sheet of paper on the table that stood
between the two work-frames, and on which stood the lamp and the
globes filled with water. He at once identified it as a writ. Madame
Crochard was weeping, and Caroline's voice was thick, and had lost its
sweet, caressing tone.
"Why be so heartbroken, mother? Monsieur Molineux will not sell us up
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