| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells: at Hampton Court station, but we thought it was thunder.
What the dickens does it all mean? The Martians can't get
out of their pit, can they?"
My brother could not tell him.
Afterwards he found that the vague feeling of alarm had
spread to the clients of the underground railway, and that
the Sunday excursionists began to return from all over the
South-Western "lung"--Barnes, Wimbledon, Richmond Park,
Kew, and so forth--at unnaturally early hours; but not a
soul had anything more than vague hearsay to tell of. Every-
one connected with the terminus seemed ill-tempered.
War of the Worlds |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Wrecker by Stevenson & Osbourne: moving in these scenes scarce fallen, and woman lovelier than
Eve; the primal curse abrogated, the bed made ready for the
stranger, life set to perpetual music, and the guest welcomed,
the boat urged, and the long night beguiled, with poetry and
choral song. A man must have been an unsuccessful artist; he
must have starved on the streets of Paris; he must have been
yoked to a commercial force like Pinkerton, before he can
conceive the longings that at times assailed me. The draughty,
rowdy city of San Francisco, the bustling office where my
friend Jim paced like a caged lion daily between ten and four,
even (at times) the retrospect of Paris, faded in comparison.
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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 Oedipus Trilogy by Sophocles: OEDIPUS
Lead me hence, then, I am willing.
CREON
Come, but let thy children go.
OEDIPUS
Rob me not of these my children!
CREON
Crave not mastery in all,
For the mastery that raised thee was thy bane and wrought thy fall.
CHORUS
Look ye, countrymen and Thebans, this is Oedipus the great,
Oedipus Trilogy |
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 Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: artificial induction of sensation, including all games and
all arts, will, indeed, go far to keep him conscious of
himself; but in the end he wearies for realities. Study or
experiment, to some rare natures, is the unbroken pastime of
a life. These are enviable natures; people shut in the house
by sickness often bitterly envy them; but the commoner man
cannot continue to exist upon such altitudes: his feet itch
for physical adventure; his blood boils for physical dangers,
pleasures, and triumphs; his fancy, the looker after new
things, cannot continue to look for them in books and
crucibles, but must seek them on the breathing stage of life.
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