| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf: the sofa on the landing (her mother's); at the rocking-chair (her
father's); at the map of the Hebrides. All that would be revived again
in the lives of Paul and Minta; "the Rayleys"--she tried the new name
over; and she felt, with her hand on the nursery door, that community
of feeling with other people which emotion gives as if the walls of
partition had become so thin that practically (the feeling was one of
relief and happiness) it was all one stream, and chairs, tables, maps,
were hers, were theirs, it did not matter whose, and Paul and Minta
would carry it on when she was dead.
She turned the handle, firmly, lest it should squeak, and went in,
pursing her lips slightly, as if to remind herself that she must not
To the Lighthouse |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Art of Writing by Robert Louis Stevenson: goes the schoolboy; but though we close our ears, we cling to
our definition, in spite of its proved and naked
insufficiency. Mr. Jenkin was not so easily pleased, and
readily discovered that the heroic line consists of four
groups, or, if you prefer the phrase, contains four pauses:
'All night | the dreadless | angel | unpursued.'
Four groups, each practically uttered as one word: the
first, in this case, an iamb; the second, an amphibrachys;
the third, a trochee; and the fourth, an amphimacer; and yet
our schoolboy, with no other liberty but that of inflicting
pain, had triumphantly scanned it as five iambs. Perceive,
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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 Menexenus by Plato: SOCRATES: But why, my friend, should he not have plenty to say? Every
rhetorician has speeches ready made; nor is there any difficulty in
improvising that sort of stuff. Had the orator to praise Athenians among
Peloponnesians, or Peloponnesians among Athenians, he must be a good
rhetorician who could succeed and gain credit. But there is no difficulty
in a man's winning applause when he is contending for fame among the
persons whom he is praising.
MENEXENUS: Do you think not, Socrates?
SOCRATES: Certainly 'not.'
MENEXENUS: Do you think that you could speak yourself if there should be a
necessity, and if the Council were to choose you?
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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 Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard: not as a tree. Thus when the power of Spain cut the band of empire
that bound them together, they fell this way and that, having no
unity. So it came about that as the power of Guatemoc weakened
that of Cortes increased, for he garnered these loosened reeds into
his basket. And, indeed, now that the people saw that Mexico had
met her match, many an ancient hate and smouldering rivalry broke
into flame, and they fell upon her and tore her, like half-tamed
wolves upon their master when his scourge is broken. It was this
that brought about the fall of Anahuac. Had she remained true to
herself, had she forgotten her feuds and jealousies and stood
against the Spaniards as one man, then Tenoctitlan would never have
Montezuma's Daughter |
