| 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: with them, form a most pleasant and hopeful new feature in English
Society; bringing together, as they do, almost all ranks, all
shades of opinion; and it has given me deep pleasure to see, in the
case at least of the Country Clubs with which I am acquainted, the
clergy of the Church of England taking an active, and often a
leading, interest in their practical work. The town clergy are,
for the most part, too utterly overworked to follow the example of
their country brethren. But I have reason to know that they regard
such societies, and Natural History in general, with no unfriendly
eyes; and that there is less fear than ever that the clergy of the
Church of England should have to relinquish their ancient boast -
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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 House of Pomegranates by Oscar Wilde: merchant, and over the feet of the merchant there was lying a
curved sword, and the tray by the side of the merchant held nine
purses of gold. And he reached out his hand and touched the sword,
and when he touched it the merchant started and awoke, and leaping
up seized himself the sword and cried to the young Fisherman, 'Dost
thou return evil for good, and pay with the shedding of blood for
the kindness that I have shown thee?'
And his Soul said to the young Fisherman, 'Strike him,' and he
struck him so that he swooned and he seized then the nine purses of
gold, and fled hastily through the garden of pomegranates, and set
his face to the star that is the star of morning.
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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 Symposium by Plato: they are the only Dialogues of Plato in which the theme of love is
discussed at length. In both of them philosophy is regarded as a sort of
enthusiasm or madness; Socrates is himself 'a prophet new inspired' with
Bacchanalian revelry, which, like his philosophy, he characteristically
pretends to have derived not from himself but from others. The Phaedo also
presents some points of comparison with the Symposium. For there, too,
philosophy might be described as 'dying for love;' and there are not
wanting many touches of humour and fancy, which remind us of the Symposium.
But while the Phaedo and Phaedrus look backwards and forwards to past and
future states of existence, in the Symposium there is no break between this
world and another; and we rise from one to the other by a regular series of
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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 Cruise of the Jasper B. by Don Marquis: at Morris's. An American flag was first hung from an upper
window over the east verandah. Then, after a moment, it was
withdrawn. Then a red flag was put out. But almost immediately
Cleggett saw a man rip the red flag from its fastenings and fling
it to the ground.
Cleggett, resorting to his glass, perceived that it was the tall
man with the stoop shoulders and incongruous clothing who had
torn down the red flag. He was now in violent altercation with
the man who had hung it out--the fellow whom he had called
Heinrich some days before.
As Cleggett watched, the two men came to blows; then they
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