| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley: beneath the waves. Old Plato called it Atlantis, and told strange
tales of the wise men who lived therein, and of the wars they
fought in the old times. And from off that island came strange
flowers, which linger still about this land:- the Cornish heath,
and Cornish moneywort, and the delicate Venus's hair, and the
London-pride which covers the Kerry mountains, and the little pink
butterwort of Devon, and the great blue butterwort of Ireland, and
the Connemara heath, and the bristle-fern of the Turk waterfall,
and many a strange plant more; all fairy tokens left for wise men
and good children from off St. Brandan's Isle.
Now when Tom got there, he found that the isle stood all on
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Sarrasine by Honore de Balzac: and at the same time the most passionate judge. She had an expressive
mouth, eyes instinct with love, flesh of dazzling whiteness. And add
to these details, which would have filled a painter's soul with
rapture, all the marvelous charms of the Venuses worshiped and copied
by the chisel of the Greeks. The artist did not tire of admiring the
inimitable grace with which the arms were attached to the body, the
wonderful roundness of the throat, the graceful curves described by
the eyebrows and the nose, and the perfect oval of the face, the
purity of its clean-cut lines, and the effect of the thick, drooping
lashes which bordered the large and voluptuous eyelids. She was more
than a woman; she was a masterpiece! In that unhoped-for creation
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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 Love and Friendship by Jane Austen: to one and were accepted; our Company was indeed rather small, as
it consisted only of the Manager his wife and ourselves, but there
were fewer to pay and the only inconvenience attending it was the
Scarcity of Plays which for want of People to fill the Characters,
we could perform. We did not mind trifles however--. One of our
most admired Performances was MACBETH, in which we were truly
great. The Manager always played BANQUO himself, his Wife my LADY
MACBETH. I did the THREE WITCHES and Philander acted ALL THE REST.
To say the truth this tragedy was not only the Best, but the only
Play that we ever performed; and after having acted it all over
England, and Wales, we came to Scotland to exhibit it over the
Love and Friendship |
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 The Enchanted Island of Yew by L. Frank Baum: a fairy should have assumed a mortal form he never once considered,
for such a thing was until then unheard of in the Enchanted Island of
Yew. But with the knowledge that he had met his master, whoever he
might prove to be, and that further attempts upon the stranger's life
might lead to his own undoing, King Terribus decided to adopt a new
line of conduct, hoping to accomplish by stratagem what he could not
do by force. To be sure, there remained his regiment of Giants, the
pride of his kingdom; but Terribus dreaded to meet with another
defeat; and he was not at all sure, after what had happened, that the
giants would succeed in conquering or destroying the strangers.
"After all," he thought, "my only object in killing them was to
The Enchanted Island of Yew |
