| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from An Episode Under the Terror by Honore de Balzac: adequate return for the money; an idea that sometimes slips into a
tradesman's head when he has been prodigiously overpaid for goods of
no great value. He took up his cap, buckled on his sabre, and came out
in full dress. But his wife had had time to reflect, and reflection,
as not unfrequently happens, closed the hand that kindly intentions
had opened. Feeling frightened and uneasy lest her husband might be
drawn into something unpleasant, she tried to catch at the skirt of
his coat, to hold him back, but he, good soul, obeying his charitable
first thought, brought out his offer to see the lady home, before his
wife could stop him.
"The man of whom the citoyenne is afraid is still prowling about the
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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 Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring by George Bernard Shaw: for their power on the lies of a romancer.
BACK TO OPERA AGAIN
And now, O Nibelungen Spectator, pluck up; for all allegories
come to an end somewhere; and the hour of your release from these
explanations is at hand. The rest of what you are going to see is
opera, and nothing but opera. Before many bars have been played,
Siegfried and the wakened Brynhild, newly become tenor and
soprano, will sing a concerted cadenza; plunge on from that to a
magnificent love duet; and end with a precipitous allegro a
capella, driven headlong to its end by the impetuous semiquaver
triplets of the famous finales to the first act of Don
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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 Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson:
Treasure Island |
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 Shadow Line by Joseph Conrad: My expectation, mingled with fear, was wrought
to its highest pitch. How slow had been the days
of the passage and how soon they were over. One
morning, early, we crossed the bar, and while the
sun was rising splendidly over the flat spaces of the
land we steamed up the innumerable bends, passed
under the shadow of the great gilt pagoda, and
reached the outskirts of the town.
There it was, spread largely on both banks, the
Oriental capital which had as yet suffered no white
conqueror; an expanse of brown houses of bamboo,
The Shadow Line |
