| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Prufrock/Other Observations by T. S. Eliot: Suddenly, his expression in a glass.
My self-possession gutters; we are really in the dark.
"For everybody said so, all our friends,
They all were sure our feelings would relate
So closely! I myself can hardly understand.
We must leave it now to fate.
You will write, at any rate.
Perhaps it is not too late
shall sit here, serving tea to friends."
And I must borrow every changing
find expression ... dance, dance
Prufrock/Other Observations |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from U. S. Project Trinity Report by Carl Maag and Steve Rohrer: also an Army sergeant, received an exposure of 3.3 roentgens. Three
members of the earth-sampling group, all of whom traveled in the tank
to ground zero, received exposures of 10, 7.5, and 5 roentgens. An
Army photographer who entered the test area six times between 23 July
and 20 October received 12.2 roentgens (1).
Four individuals involved with excavating the buried supports of the
TRINITY tower from 8 October to 10 October 1945 received gamma
exposures ranging from 3.4 to 4.7 roentgens. Film badge readings for
this three-day period indicate that the two individuals who operated
mechanical shovels received 3.4 and 4.3 roentgens, while the two who
supervised and monitored the excavation received exposures of 4.2 and
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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 In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield: The Herr Professor, beside me, abnormally serious, his eyes bulging, pulled
at his moustache ends. Frau Godowska adopted that peculiarly detached
attitude of the proud parent. The only soul who remained untouched by her
appeal was the waiter, who leaned idly against the wall of the salon and
cleaned his nails with the edge of a programme. He was "off duty" and
intended to show it.
"What did I say?" shouted the Herr Professor under cover of tumultuous
applause, "tem-per-ament! There you have it. She is a flame in the heart
of a lily. I know I am going to play well. It is my turn now. I am
inspired. Fraulein Sonia"--as that lady returned to us, pale and draped in
a large shawl--"you are my inspiration. To-night you shall be the soul of
|
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 Georgics by Virgil: Or, otherwise, in knotless trunks is hewn
A breach, and deep into the solid grain
A path with wedges cloven; then fruitful slips
Are set herein, and- no long time- behold!
To heaven upshot with teeming boughs, the tree
Strange leaves admires and fruitage not its own.
Nor of one kind alone are sturdy elms,
Willow and lotus, nor the cypress-trees
Of Ida; nor of self-same fashion spring
Fat olives, orchades, and radii
And bitter-berried pausians, no, nor yet
Georgics |
