| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Somebody's Little Girl by Martha Young: all the little girls to the long back gallery that was latticed in.
On a low shelf close against the lattice sat a row of white basins.
Then all the little tiny girls washed their little tiny hands in the
white basins. And while they washed their little tiny hands by twos
and by threes together, two little girls washing their hands in one
basin together, three little girls washing their hands together,
they all oftentimes laughed together and said:
``Wash together!
And be friends forever!
Wash together!
And be friends forever!''
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Manon Lescaut by Abbe Prevost: "This speech seemed to inspire her with joy. `Would you believe
it,' she replied, `I have thought of this a thousand times since
our arrival in America? The fear of annoying you has kept it
shut up in my breast. I felt that I had no pretensions to aspire
to the character of your wife.'
"`Ah! Manon,' said I, `you should very soon be a sovereign's
consort, if I had been born to the inheritance of a crown. Let
us not hesitate; we have no obstacle to impede us: I will this
day speak to the governor on the subject, and acknowledge that we
have in this particular hitherto deceived him. Let us leave,'
added I, `to vulgar lovers the dread of the indissoluble bonds of
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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 Hellenica by Xenophon: thunderbolt; a female figure [= the {Summakhia}?] approaches
lifting her veil, while Athena stands by") now standing among the
sculptures from the Asklepieion on the Acropolis at Athens. See
Milchhofer, p. 47, no. 7, "Die Museum," Athens, 1881. For the
date, see Demosth. "c. Polycl." 1207.
While these matters were in progress, Epaminondas was prosecuting his
march at the head of all the Boeotians, with the Euboeans, and a large
body of Thessalians, furnished both by Alexander[2] and by his
opponents. The Phocians were not represented. Their special agreement
only required them to render assistance in case of an attack on
Thebes; to assist in a hostile expedition against others was not in
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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 To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf: of untruth; never tampered with a fact; never altered a disagreeable word
to suit the pleasure or convenience of any mortal being, least of all of
his own children, who, sprung from his loins, should be aware from
childhood that life is difficult; facts uncompromising; and the passage to
that fabled land where our brightest hopes are extinguished, our frail
barks founder in darkness (here Mr Ramsay would straighten his back and
narrow his little blue eyes upon the horizon), one that needs, above all,
courage, truth, and the power to endure.
"But it may be fine--I expect it will be fine," said Mrs Ramsay, making
some little twist of the reddish brown stocking she was knitting,
impatiently. If she finished it tonight, if they did go to the Lighthouse
To the Lighthouse |
