| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Philosophy 4 by Owen Wister: blossoms all over the meadow. They fell from the tree where Bertie and
Billy lay, and the boys brushed them from their faces. Not very far
away was Blue Hill, softly shining; and crows high up in the air came
from it occasionally across here.
By one o'clock a change had come in Billy's room. Oscar during that
hour had opened his satchel of philosophy upon his lap and read his
notes attentively. Being almost word perfect in many parts of them, he
now spent his unexpected leisure in acquiring accurately the language of
still further paragraphs." The sharp line of demarcation which
Descartes drew between consciousness and the material world," whispered
Oscar with satisfaction, and knew that if Descartes were on the
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Footnote to History by Robert Louis Stevenson: impatient. They will still tell you, though the dates are there to
show them wrong, that Mataafa, even after his coronation, delayed
extremely: a proof of how long two days may seem to last when men
anticipate events. On the evening of the 11th, while the new king
was already on the march, one of these walked into Matautu. The
moon was bright. By the way he observed the native houses dark and
silent; the men had been about a fortnight in the bush, but now the
women and children were gone also; at which he wondered. On the
sea-beach, in the camp of the Tamaseses, the solitude was near as
great; he saw three or four men smoking before the British
consulate, perhaps a dozen in all; the rest were behind in the bush
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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 Child of Storm by H. Rider Haggard: go mine, since the proud white man shall not be stained with my black
touch. Go your road; but one thing I forbid you--to believe that you
have been listening to lies, and that I have merely played off a woman's
arts upon you for my own ends. I love you, Macumazahn, as you will
never be loved till you die, and I shall never love any other man,
however many I may marry. Moreover, you shall promise me one
thing--that once in my life, and once only, if I wish it, you shall kiss
me again before all men. And now, lest you should be moved to folly and
forget your white man's pride, I bid you farewell, O Macumazana. When
we meet again it will be as friends only."
Then she went, leaving me feeling smaller than ever I felt in my life,
Child of Storm |
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 Somebody's Little Girl by Martha Young: around the beds (but they must not step on the beds)--just one hour.
If a rain came it always did surprise them: those little girls were
always surprised when it rained! and they did not know exactly what
to do when it rained, though they knew almost always what to do when
the sun shone. One day when it rained it happened that the little
girls were all left over the one hour in the long room where all the
rows and rows of the little arm-chairs sat, and where all the little
girls learned to Count, and to say Their Prayers, and to Tell the
Time, and to sing ``Angels Bright,'' and to know the A B C blocks.
Sister Theckla, who always stayed the one hour in that room, had
gone to say to the Sisters that the one hour was over, and that it
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