| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Pocket Diary Found in the Snow by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: back wearily in an arm-chair was a prisoner.
She looked up as they entered. The expression of utter despair and
deep weariness which had rested on her pale face changed to a look
of terror; then she saw that it was not her would-be murderer who
was entering, but those who came to rescue. A bright flush illumined
her cheeks and her eyes gleamed. But the change was too sudden for
her tortured soul. She rose from her chair, then sank fainting to
the floor.
Berner threw himself on his knees beside her, sobbing out, "She is
dying! She is dying!"
Muller turned on the instant, for he had heard the door on the other
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from King James Bible: DEU 32:45 And Moses made an end of speaking all these words to all
Israel:
DEU 32:46 And he said unto them, Set your hearts unto all the words
which I testify among you this day, which ye shall command your children
to observe to do, all the words of this law.
DEU 32:47 For it is not a vain thing for you; because it is your life:
and through this thing ye shall prolong your days in the land, whither
ye go over Jordan to possess it.
DEU 32:48 And the LORD spake unto Moses that selfsame day, saying,
DEU 32:49 Get thee up into this mountain Abarim, unto mount Nebo, which
is in the land of Moab, that is over against Jericho; and behold the
King James Bible |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne: donkey; that courageous beast which old Silenus loved to mount.
I love those old donkeys; they are the least favored animals in
creation; they are not only beaten while alive, but even after
they are dead."
"How do you make that out?" asked Barbicane. "Why," said
Michel, "they make their skins into drums."
Barbicane and Nicholl could not help laughing at this ridiculous remark.
But a cry from their merry companion stopped them. The latter was
leaning over the spot where Satellite lay. He rose, saying:
"My good Satellite is no longer ill."
"Ah!" said Nicholl.
From the Earth to the Moon |
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 Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne: of Alphonsus Tostatus, who, almost in his nurse's arms, learned all the
sciences and liberal arts without being taught any one of them?--What shall
we say of the great Piereskius?--That's the very man, cried my uncle Toby,
I once told you of, brother Shandy, who walked a matter of five hundred
miles, reckoning from Paris to Shevling, and from Shevling back again,
merely to see Stevinus's flying chariot.--He was a very great man! added my
uncle Toby (meaning Stevinus)--He was so, brother Toby, said my father
(meaning Piereskius)--and had multiplied his ideas so fast, and increased
his knowledge to such a prodigious stock, that, if we may give credit to an
anecdote concerning him, which we cannot withhold here, without shaking the
authority of all anecdotes whatever--at seven years of age, his father
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