| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Misalliance by George Bernard Shaw: | shall not allow it.
|
MRS TARLETON. | Do you want to kill the child? He shant go.
BENTLEY. I will. I'll lie down and yell until you let me go. I'm
not a coward. I wont be a coward.
LORD SUMMERHAYS. Miss Szczepanowska: my son is very dear to me. I
implore you to wait until tomorrow morning.
LINA. There may be a storm tomorrow. And I'll go: storm or no
storm. I must risk my life tomorrow.
BENTLEY. I hope there will be a storm.
LINA. _[grasping his arm]_ You are trembling.
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians by Martin Luther: mere request of Sarah. God did not command Abraham to take Hagar, nor
did God promise to bless the coalition. It is evident that Ishmael was the
son of Abraham after the flesh, and not after the promise.
In the ninth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans St. Paul advances the
same argument which he amplifies into an allegory in writing to the
Galatians. There he argues that all the children of Abraham are not the
children of God. For Abraham had two kinds of children, children born of
the promise, like Isaac, and other children born without the promise, as
Ishmael. With this argument Paul squelched the proud Jews who gloried
that they were the children of God because they were the seed and the
children of Abraham. Paul makes it clear enough that it takes more than
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Massimilla Doni by Honore de Balzac: Vendramin's brow.
"Oh, if he loves us he will give up his dreadful opium!" said
Massimilla.
"I will cure your friend," said the Frenchman.
"Achieve that, and we shall love you," said the Duchess. "But if on
your return to France you do not calumniate us, we shall love you even
better. The hapless Italians are too much crushed by foreign dominion
to be fairly judged--for we have known yours," she added, with a
smile.
"It was more generous than Austria's," said the physician, eagerly.
"Austria squeezes and gives us nothing back, and you squeeze to
|
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 Taras Bulba and Other Tales by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: everything, but he always pretends the contrary."
"I don't believe the archimandrite allowed you so much as a smell of
corn-brandy," continued Taras. "Confess, my boys, they thrashed you
well with fresh birch-twigs on your backs and all over your Cossack
bodies; and perhaps, when you grew too sharp, they beat you with
whips. And not on Saturday only, I fancy, but on Wednesday and
Thursday."
"What is past, father, need not be recalled; it is done with."
"Let them try it know," said Andrii. "Let anybody just touch me, let
any Tatar risk it now, and he'll soon learn what a Cossack's sword is
like!"
Taras Bulba and Other Tales |
