| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland by Olive Schreiner: God are born on earth, named by men Children of Genius. In early youth
each stands at the parting of the way and chooses; he bears his gift for
others or for himself. But forget this never, whatever his choice may be;
that there is laid on him a burden that is laid not on others--all space is
open to him, and his choice is infinite--and if he falls beneath it, let
men weep rather than curse, for he was born a Son of God."
There was silence again. Then Peter Halket clasped his arms about the
stranger's feet. "My master," he cried, "I dare not take that message. It
is not that men may say, 'Here is Trooper Peter Halket, whom we all know, a
man who kept women and shot niggers, turned prophet.' But it is, that it
is true. Have I not wished--" and Peter Halket would have poured out all
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Ursula by Honore de Balzac: much safer to put the lock of the door opening into the library on the
library side. Dazzled by his hopes, and his ears flushed with blood,
Minoret sprang the lock with the point of his knife as rapidly as a
burglar could have done it. He entered the study, followed the
doctor's directions, took the package of papers without opening it,
relocked the door, put everything in order, and went into the dining-
room and sat down, waiting till La Bougival had gone upstairs with the
poultice before he ventured to leave the house. He then made his
escape,--all the more easily because poor Ursula lingered to see that
La Bougival applied the poultice properly.
"The letter! the letter!" cried the old man, in a dying voice. "Obey
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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 Historical Lecturers and Essays by Charles Kingsley: lived, for the most part, not in colleges, but in private lodgings,
and constituted a republic of their own, ruled by an abbe of the
scholars, one of themselves, chosen by universal suffrage. A terror
they were often to the respectable burghers, for they had all the
right to carry arms; and a plague likewise, for, if they ran in
debt, their creditors were forbidden to seize their books, which,
with their swords, were generally all the property they possessed.
If, moreover, anyone set up a noisy or unpleasant trade near their
lodgings, the scholars could compel the town authorities to turn him
out. They were most of them, probably, mere boys of from twelve to
twenty, living poorly, working hard, and--those at least of them who
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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 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle: it--that it is the clew which will guide you in the solution of
some mystery and the punishment of some crime."
"No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of
those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have
four million human beings all jostling each other within the
space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so
dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events
may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be
presented which may be striking and bizarre without being
criminal. We have already had experience of such."
"So much so," l remarked, "that of the last six cases which I
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes |
