| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Recruit by Honore de Balzac: search for the reasons of this sudden retreat.
"If she were ill," said the first Inquisitive, "she would have sent
for the doctor; but the doctor has been all day long playing chess
with me. He told me, laughing, that in these days there was but one
malady, and that was incurable."
This joke was cautiously uttered. Men, women, old men, and young
girls, all set to work to explore the vast field of conjecture. The
next day, conjectures became suspicions. As life is all aboveboard in
a little town, the women were the first to learn that Brigitte had
made larger purchases than usual in the market. This fact could not be
disputed: Brigitte had been seen there, very early in the morning;
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Woman and Labour by Olive Schreiner: looking might refuse to see that it was the moon which caused the eclipse,
and their deep-seated reverence for the insect, which was the growth of
ages, would lead them to regard as impious those individuals who denied its
godhead, and might even lead to the physical destruction of the first
unbelievers. The society, once so homogeneous and co-ordinated in all its
parts, would become at once a society rent by moral and social problems;
and endless suffering must arise to individuals in the attempt to co-
ordinate the ideals, manners, and institutions of the society to the new
conditions! There might be immense gain in many directions; lives
otherwise sacrificed would be spared, a higher and more satisfactory stage
of existence might be entered on; but the disco-ordination and struggle
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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 The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Challenged Shingebis, the diver,
To come forth and wrestle with him,
To come forth and wrestle naked
On the frozen fens and moorlands.
Forth went Shingebis, the diver,
Wrestled all night with the North-Wind,
Wrestled naked on the moorlands
With the fierce Kabibonokka,
Till his panting breath grew fainter,
Till his frozen grasp grew feebler,
Till he reeled and staggered backward,
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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 Grimm's Fairy Tales by Brothers Grimm: and thought it must be some strange princess, she looked so fine and
beautiful in her rich clothes; and they never once thought of
Ashputtel, taking it for granted that she was safe at home in the
dirt.
The king's son soon came up to her, and took her by the hand and
danced with her, and no one else: and he never left her hand; but when
anyone else came to ask her to dance, he said, 'This lady is dancing
with me.'
Thus they danced till a late hour of the night; and then she wanted to
go home: and the king's son said, 'I shall go and take care of you to
your home'; for he wanted to see where the beautiful maiden lived. But
Grimm's Fairy Tales |
