| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Passionate Pilgrim by William Shakespeare: But wherefore says my love that she is young?
And wherefore say not I that I am old?
O, love's best habit is a soothing tongue,
And age, in love, loves not to have years told.
Therefore, I'll lie with love, and love with me,
Since that our faults in love thus smother'd be.
II.
Two loves I have, of comfort and despair,
That like two spirits do suggest me still;
My better angel is a man right fair,
My worser spirit a woman colour'd ill.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Life in the Iron-Mills by Rebecca Davis: The girl's face was haggard and sickly; her eyes were heavy with
sleep and hunger: real Milesian eyes they were, dark, delicate
blue, glooming out from black shadows with a pitiful fright.
"I was alone," she said, timidly.
"Where's the father?" asked Deborah, holding out a potato,
which the girl greedily seized.
"He's beyant,--wid Haley,--in the stone house." (Did you ever
hear the word tail from an Irish mouth?) "I came here. Hugh
told me never to stay me-lone."
"Hugh?"
"Yes."
Life in the Iron-Mills |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Hiero by Xenophon: requital to all those he has thrust into felons' quarters?[21] how
proffer lives enough to die in compensation of the dead men he has
slain? how die a thousand deaths?
[20] Holden aptly cf. Plut. "Sol." 14, {kalon men einai ten torannida
khorion, ouk ekhein de apobasin}, "it was true a tyrrany was a
very fair spot, but it had no way down from it" (Clough, i. p.
181).
[21] Or, "how undergo in his own person the imprisonments he has
inflicted?" Reading {antipaskhoi}, or if {antiparaskhoi}, transl.
"how could he replace in his own person the exact number of
imprisonments which he has inflicted on others?"
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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 Marie by H. Rider Haggard: "There is no question," I said, "since, rich or poor, not for a thousand
pounds would I shoot again against one who plays such tricks. Keep your
money, Mynheer Pereira, and I will keep my mare. The umpire has said
that the match is dead, so everything is finished."
"Not quite," interrupted Retief, "for I have a word to say. Friend
Allan, you have played fair, and I believe that there is no one who can
shoot like you in Africa."
"That is so," said the audience of Boers.
"Mynheer Pereira," went on Retief, "although you, too, are a fine shot,
as is well known, I believe that had you played fair also you would have
been beaten, but as it is you have saved your hundred pounds. Mynheer
Marie |
