| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Glaucus/The Wonders of the Shore by Charles Kingsley: place in the centre."
Mr. Gosse next tried the fairy of the walking mouth with a house-
fly, who escaped only by hard fighting; and at last the gentle
creature, after swallowing and disgorging various large pieces of
shell-fish, found viands to its taste in "the lean of cooked meat
and portions of earthworms," filling up the intervals by a
perpetual dessert of microscopic animalcules, whirled into that
lovely avernus, its mouth, by the currents of the delicate ciliae
which clothe every tentacle. The fact is, that the Madrepore, like
those glorious sea-anemones whose living flowers stud every pool,
is by profession a scavenger and a feeder on carrion; and being as
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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 Second Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling: saw their Bhagat holding back the terrified barasingh, while
the monkeys plucked piteously at his skirts, and Sona sat on
his haunches and roared.
"Across the valley and up the next hill!" shouted Purun Bhagat.
"Leave none behind! We follow!"
Then the people ran as only Hill folk can run, for they knew
that in a landslip you must climb for the highest ground across
the valley. They fled, splashing through the little river at
the bottom, and panted up the terraced fields on the far side,
while the Bhagat and his brethren followed. Up and up the
opposite mountain they climbed, calling to each other by name--
The Second Jungle Book |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Euthyphro by Plato: becoming, but it is in a state of becoming because it becomes; neither does
it suffer because it is in a state of suffering, but it is in a state of
suffering because it suffers. Do you not agree?
EUTHYPHRO: Yes.
SOCRATES: Is not that which is loved in some state either of becoming or
suffering?
EUTHYPHRO: Yes.
SOCRATES: And the same holds as in the previous instances; the state of
being loved follows the act of being loved, and not the act the state.
EUTHYPHRO: Certainly.
SOCRATES: And what do you say of piety, Euthyphro: is not piety,
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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 Prince of Bohemia by Honore de Balzac: by it; but as for such as you, you believe that you are nothing
apparently, you do not wish to be ruled.--Five-and-thirty, my dear
boy,' she continued, turning to me, 'that is the clue to the riddle.--
"No," does he say again?--You know quite well that I am thirty-seven.
I am very sorry, but just ask your friends to dine at the /Rocher de
Cancale/. I /could/ have them here, but I will not; they shall not
come. And then perhaps my poor little monologue may engrave that
salutary maxim, "Each is master at home," upon your memory. That is
our character,' she added, laughing, with a return of the opera girl's
giddiness and caprice.
" 'Well, well, my dear little puss; there, there, never mind. We can
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