| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Protagoras by Plato: Certainly, he said.
And then after this suppose that he came and asked us, 'What were you
saying just now? Perhaps I may not have heard you rightly, but you seemed
to me to be saying that the parts of virtue were not the same as one
another.' I should reply, 'You certainly heard that said, but not, as you
imagine, by me; for I only asked the question; Protagoras gave the answer.'
And suppose that he turned to you and said, 'Is this true, Protagoras? and
do you maintain that one part of virtue is unlike another, and is this your
position?'--how would you answer him?
I could not help acknowledging the truth of what he said, Socrates.
Well then, Protagoras, we will assume this; and now supposing that he
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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 Enchanted Island of Yew by L. Frank Baum: speak and the other only laugh seemed to terrify the double people
anew. So Prince Marvel quickly asked:
"Please tell us what country this is?"
"The Land of Twi," answered both men, together.
"Oh! the Land of Twi. And why is the light here so dim?"
continued the prince.
"Dim?" repeated the men, as if surprised; "why, this is twilight,
of course."
"Of course," said Nerle. "I hadn't thought of that. We are in the
long hidden Land of Twi, which all men have heard of, but no man has
found before."
The Enchanted Island of Yew |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Fanny Herself by Edna Ferber: December. They entered the warm radiance of the luxurious
foyer with a little breathless rush, as wind-blown
Chicagoans generally do. The head waiter must have thought
Father Fitzpatrick a cardinal, at least, for he seated them
at a window table that looked out upon the icy street,
with Grant Park, crusted with sooty snow, just across the
way, and beyond that the I. C. tracks and the great gray
lake. The splendid room was all color, and perfume, and
humming conversation. A fountain tinkled in the center, and
upon its waters there floated lily pads and blossoms,
weirdly rose, and mauve, and lavender. The tables were
Fanny Herself |
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 Jolly Corner by Henry James: that he couldn't have noticed before (by which he meant on his
original tour of all the rooms that evening) that such a barrier
had exceptionally presented itself. He had indeed since that
moment undergone an agitation so extraordinary that it might have
muddled for him any earlier view; and he tried to convince himself
that he might perhaps then have gone into the room and,
inadvertently, automatically, on coming out, have drawn the door
after him. The difficulty was that this exactly was what he never
did; it was against his whole policy, as he might have said, the
essence of which was to keep vistas clear. He had them from the
first, as he was well aware, quite on the brain: the strange
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