| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Othello by William Shakespeare: And to his Honours and his valiant parts,
Did I my soule and Fortunes consecrate.
So that (deere Lords) if I be left behind
A Moth of Peace, and he go to the Warre,
The Rites for why I loue him, are bereft me:
And I a heauie interim shall support
By his deere absence. Let me go with him
Othe. Let her haue your voice.
Vouch with me Heauen, I therefore beg it not
To please the pallate of my Appetite:
Nor to comply with heat the yong affects
Othello |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Mansfield Park by Jane Austen: she found, while they were at table, such a happy flow
of conversation prevailing, in which she was not required
to take any part--there was so much to be said between
the brother and sister about Bath, so much between
the two young men about hunting, so much of politics
between Mr. Crawford and Dr. Grant, and of everything
and all together between Mr. Crawford and Mrs. Grant,
as to leave her the fairest prospect of having only to
listen in quiet, and of passing a very agreeable day.
She could not compliment the newly arrived gentleman,
however, with any appearance of interest, in a scheme
Mansfield Park |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: first of all the honour to ride with the master of the house about
two miles; the state he rode in was a perfect Don Quixotism, being
a mixture of pomp and poverty. His habit was very proper for a
merry-andrew, being a dirty calico, with hanging sleeves, tassels,
and cuts and slashes almost on every side: it covered a taffety
vest, so greasy as to testify that his honour must be a most
exquisite sloven. His horse was a poor, starved, hobbling
creature, and two slaves followed him on foot to drive the poor
creature along; he had a whip in his hand, and he belaboured the
beast as fast about the head as his slaves did about the tail; and
thus he rode by us, with about ten or twelve servants, going from
Robinson Crusoe |
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 Night and Day by Virginia Woolf: something bitter as the reading went on; while Mr. Hilbery would treat
the moderns with a curious elaborate banter such as one might apply to
the antics of a promising child. So this evening, after five pages or
so of one of these masters, Mrs. Hilbery protested that it was all too
clever and cheap and nasty for words.
"Please, Katharine, read us something REAL."
Katharine had to go to the bookcase and choose a portly volume in
sleek, yellow calf, which had directly a sedative effect upon both her
parents. But the delivery of the evening post broke in upon the
periods of Henry Fielding, and Katharine found that her letters needed
all her attention.
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