| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Hamlet by William Shakespeare: If damned Custome haue not braz'd it so,
That it is proofe and bulwarke against Sense
Qu. What haue I done, that thou dar'st wag thy tong,
In noise so rude against me?
Ham. Such an Act
That blurres the grace and blush of Modestie,
Cals Vertue Hypocrite, takes off the Rose
From the faire forehead of an innocent loue,
And makes a blister there. Makes marriage vowes
As false as Dicers Oathes. Oh such a deed,
As from the body of Contraction pluckes
Hamlet |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tattine by Ruth Ogden [Mrs. Charles W. Ide]: two homes where those three dear children lived. Patrick the coachman and
Philip the groom had been sent with the wagonette by the main road to Patrick
Kirk's--Patrick to bring the children and Philip to take charge of Barney, but
as the children were coming home, or rather trying to come home, by the ford,
of course they missed them.
All the while the storm was growing in violence, and suddenly for about five
minutes great hailstones came beating down till the lawn was fairly white with
them, and the panes of glass in the green-house roof at Oakdene cracked and
broke beneath them. "And those three blessed children are probably out in it
all," thought Tattine's Mother, standing pale and trembling at her window, and
watching the road which the wagonette would have to come. And then what did
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes: friendships have been between people that could not read nor spell.
But to radiate the heat of the affections into a clod which absorbs
all that is poured into it, but never warms beneath the sunshine of
smiles or the pressure of hand or lip, - this is the great
martyrdom of sensitive beings, - most of all in that perpetual AUTO
DA FE where young womanhood is the sacrifice.
- You noticed, perhaps, what I just said about the loves and
friendships of illiterate persons, - that is, of the human race,
with a few exceptions here and there. I like books, - I was born
and bred among them, and have the easy feeling, when I get into
their presence, that a stable-boy has among horses. I don't think
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table |
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 Euthydemus by Plato: And are you an ox because an ox is present with you, or are you
Dionysodorus, because Dionysodorus is present with you?
God forbid, I replied.
But how, he said, by reason of one thing being present with another, will
one thing be another?
Is that your difficulty? I said. For I was beginning to imitate their
skill, on which my heart was set.
Of course, he replied, I and all the world are in a difficulty about the
non-existent.
What do you mean, Dionysodorus? I said. Is not the honourable honourable
and the base base?
|
