| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from King Lear by William Shakespeare: As may compact it more. Get you gone,
And hasten your return. [Exit Oswald.] No, no, my lord!
This milky gentleness and course of yours,
Though I condemn it not, yet, under pardon,
You are much more at task for want of wisdom
Than prais'd for harmful mildness.
Alb. How far your eyes may pierce I cannot tell.
Striving to better, oft we mar what's well.
Gon. Nay then-
Alb. Well, well; th' event. Exeunt.
Scene V.
King Lear |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Commission in Lunacy by Honore de Balzac: Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
The Firm of Nucingen
A Man of Business
The Middle Classes
Espard, Charles-Maurice-Marie-Andoche, Comte de Negrepelisse, Marquis d'
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
Espard, Chevalier d'
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
The Secrets of a Princess
Espard, Jeanne-Clementine-Athenais de Blamont-Chauvry, Marquise d'
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
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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 Catriona by Robert Louis Stevenson: But there would be fowk there to hauld them company, and the lads to
egg them on; and this thing was its lee-lane. And there would be a
fiddler diddling his elbock in the chimney-side; and this thing had nae
music but the skirling of the solans. And the lassies were bits o'
young things wi' the reid life dinnling and stending in their members;
and this was a muckle, fat, creishy man, and him fa'n in the vale o'
years. Say what ye like, I maun say what I believe. It was joy was in
the creature's heart, the joy o' hell, I daursay: joy whatever. Mony
a time I have askit mysel' why witches and warlocks should sell their
sauls (whilk are their maist dear possessions) and be auld, duddy,
wrunkl't wives or auld, feckless, doddered men; and then I mind upon
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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 Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen: the recollection of what civility demanded towards herself.
"Is your sister ill?" said he.
Elinor answered in some distress that she was,
and then talked of head-aches, low spirits, and over fatigues;
and of every thing to which she could decently attribute
her sister's behaviour.
He heard her with the most earnest attention,
but seeming to recollect himself, said no more on the subject,
and began directly to speak of his pleasure at seeing them
in London, making the usual inquiries about their journey,
and the friends they had left behind.
Sense and Sensibility |
