| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Dreams by Olive Schreiner: about him. A fine, imperceptible rain fell in the dark, and great drops
gathered on his hair and clothes. His heart beat slowly, and a numbness
crept through all his limbs. Then, looking up, two merry wisp lights came
dancing. He lifted his head to look at them. Nearer, nearer they came.
So warm, so bright, they danced like stars of fire. They stood before him
at last. From the centre of the radiating flame in one looked out a
woman's face, laughing, dimpled, with streaming yellow hair. In the centre
of the other were merry laughing ripples, like the bubbles on a glass of
wine. They danced before him.
"Who are you," asked the hunter, "who alone come to me in my solitude and
darkness?"
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Talisman by Walter Scott: She must be obeyed, was the first distinct idea which waked him
from his reverie, and he hastened to the place by which he had
entered the pavilion. To pass under the canvas in the manner he
had entered required time and attention, and he made a readier
aperture by slitting the canvas wall with his poniard. When in
the free air, he felt rather stupefied and overpowered by a
conflict of sensations, than able to ascertain what was the real
import of the whole. He was obliged to spur himself to action by
recollecting that the commands of the Lady Edith had required
haste. Even then, engaged as he was amongst tent-ropes and
tents, he was compelled to move with caution until he should
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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 Tess of the d'Urbervilles, A Pure Woman by Thomas Hardy: Tess looked out of the window.
"I would rather stay here with father and you," she said.
"But why?"
"I'd rather not tell you why, mother; indeed, I don't
quite know why."
A week afterwards she came in one evening from an
unavailing search for some light occupation in the
immediate neighbourhood. Her idea had been to get
together sufficient money during the summer to purchase
another horse. Hardly had she crossed the threshold
before one of the children danced across the room,
Tess of the d'Urbervilles, A Pure Woman |
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 An Unsocial Socialist by George Bernard Shaw: "Why should I deny it? It is true. Do you not see the irony of
all this? I amuse myself by paying a few compliments to a
schoolgirl for whom I do not care two straws more than for any
agreeable and passably clever woman I meet. Nevertheless, I
occasionally feel a pang of remorse because I think that she may
love me seriously, although I am only playing with her. I pity
the poor heart I have wantonly ensnared. And, all the time, she
is pitying me for exactly the same reason! She is
conscience-stricken because she is only indulging in the luxury
of being adored 'by far the cleverest man she has ever met,' and
is as heart-whole as I am! Ha, ha! That is the basis of the
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