| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from An Unsocial Socialist by George Bernard Shaw: any good purpose; but he did not want to say so, lest he should
acquire a reputation for impiety and lose his practice. He
believed that the general practitioner who attended the family,
and had called him in when the case grew serious, had treated
Henrietta unskilfully, but professional etiquette bound him so
strongly that, sooner than betray his colleague's inefficiency,
he would have allowed him to decimate London.
"One word more," said Trefusis. "Did she know that she was
dying?"
"No. I considered it best that she should not be informed of her
danger. She passed away without any apprehension."
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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 Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne: their wild flavour. The small denizens of the wilderness hardly
took pains to move out of her path. A partridge, indeed, with a
brood of ten behind her, ran forward threateningly, but soon
repented of her fierceness, and clucked to her young ones not to
be afraid. A pigeon, alone on a low branch, allowed Pearl to
come beneath, and uttered a sound as much of greeting as alarm.
A squirrel, from the lofty depths of his domestic tree, chattered
either in anger or merriment -- for the squirrel is such a
choleric and humorous little personage, that it is hard to
distinguish between his moods -- so he chattered at the child,
and flung down a nut upon her bead. It was a last year's nut,
The Scarlet Letter |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Bab:A Sub-Deb, Mary Roberts Rinehart by Mary Roberts Rinehart: of my Work."
"Work?"
"I am a writer" I said in a low, ernest tone.
"No! How--how amazing. What do you write?"
"I'm on a play now."
"A Comedy?"
"No. A Tradgedy. How can I write a Comedy when a play must always
end in a catastrofe? The book says all plays end in Crisis,
Denouement and Catastrofe."
"I can't beleive it," he said. "But, to tell you a Secret, I never
read any books about Plays."
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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 The Passionate Pilgrim by William Shakespeare: All ignorant that soul that sees thee without wonder;
Which is to me some praise, that I thy parts admire:
Thy eye Jove's lightning seems, thy voice his dreadful thunder,
Which, not to anger bent, is music and sweet fire.
Celestial as thou art, O do not love that wrong,
To sing heaven's praise with such an earthly tongue.
VI.
Scarce had the sun dried up the dewy morn,
And scarce the herd gone to the hedge for shade,
When Cytherea, all in love forlorn,
A longing tarriance for Adonis made
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