| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lady Windermere's Fan by Oscar Wilde: yet. I have a lot to talk to you about. And Cecil has something
to show you.
LORD WINDERMERE. [Walking over.] Well, what is it?
CECIL GRAHAM. Darlington has got a woman here in his rooms. Here
is her fan. Amusing, isn't it? [A pause.]
LORD WINDERMERE. Good God! [Seizes the fan - DUMBY rises.]
CECIL GRAHAM. What is the matter?
LORD WINDERMERE. Lord Darlington!
LORD DARLINGTON. [Turning round.] Yes!
LORD WINDERMERE. What is my wife's fan doing here in your rooms?
Hands off, Cecil. Don't touch me.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Sanitary and Social Lectures by Charles Kingsley: as I can ascertain, has man been inventing stimulants and
narcotics to supply that want of vitality of which he is so
painfully aware; and has asked nature, and not God, to clear the
dull brain, and comfort the weary spirit.
This has been, and will be perhaps for many a century to come,
almost the most fearful failing of this poor, exceptional, over-
organised, diseased, and truly fallen being called Man, who is in
doubt daily whether he be a god or an ape; and in trying wildly to
become the former, ends but too often in becoming the latter.
For man, whether savage or civilised, feels, and has felt in every
age, that there is something wrong with him. He usually confesses
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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 The Profits of Religion by Upton Sinclair: thinking? That all the intellectual prestige of the Church should
be lent to the support of vagueness, futility, and deliberate
evasion? Here we are, all of us, caught in the most terrific
social crisis of history; I search for a metaphor to picture our
position, and I recall a canoe-trip in the wilds of Ontario,
hundreds of miles down a long swift river. You sit in the bow of
the canoe, your partner in the stern, watching ahead; and there
comes a slide of smooth green water, and you go over it, and into
a torrent of foaming white, which seizes you and rushes you along
with the speed of a race-horse. With every sense alert, You watch
for the rocks, and when you see one, you dip your paddle on one
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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 Little Women by Louisa May Alcott: to a poor and ambitious girl, but the means she took to gain
her end were not the best. She saw that money conferred power,
therefore, she resolved to have, not to be used for herself alone,
but for those whom she loved more than life.
The dream of filling home with comforts, giving Beth everything
she wanted, from strawberries in winter to an organ in her bedroom,
going abroad herself, and always having more than enough,
so that she might indulge in the luxury of charity, had been
for years Jo's most cherished castle in the air.
The prize-story experience had seemed to open a way which
might, after long traveling and much uphill work, lead to this
Little Women |
