| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Complete Poems of Longfellow by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Descend upon him! Let him be accursed!
[Exit.
UPSALL.
Now, go thy ways, John Norton, go thy ways,
Thou Orthodox Evangelist, as men call thee!
But even now there cometh out of England,
Like an o'ertaking and accusing conscience,
An outraged man, to call thee to account
For the unrighteous murder of his son!
[Exit.
SCENE V. -- The Wilderness. Enter EDITH.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Treatise on Parents and Children by George Bernard Shaw: to the poor voter, not as his representative but as his will-less
soulless "delegate," is himself the dupe of a clever wife who
repudiates Votes for Women, knowing well that whilst the man is
master, the man's mistress will rule. Uriah Heep may be a crawling
creature; but his crawling takes him upstairs.
Thus does the selfishness of the will turn on itself, and obtain by
flattery what it cannot seize by open force. Democracy becomes the
latest trick of tyranny: "womanliness" becomes the latest wile of
prostitution.
Between parent and child the same conflict wages and the same
destruction of character ensues. Parents set themselves to bend the
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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 Idylls of the King by Alfred Tennyson: Was victor wellnigh day by day, the knights,
Glorying in each new glory, set his name
High on all hills, and in the signs of heaven.'
And Dagonet answered, `Ay, and when the land
Was freed, and the Queen false, ye set yourself
To babble about him, all to show your wit--
And whether he were King by courtesy,
Or King by right--and so went harping down
The black king's highway, got so far, and grew
So witty that ye played at ducks and drakes
With Arthur's vows on the great lake of fire.
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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 Lady Baltimore by Owen Wister: to see smashed to smithereens.
I told him that I should consider myself undeservedly privileged.
"Some of these people are my people," he said, beginning to move.
The old custodian stood smiling, familiar, respectful, disappointed.
"Some of 'em my people, too, Mas' John," he cannily observed.
I put a little silver in his hand. "Didn't I see a box somewhere," I
said, "with something on it about the restoration of the church?"
"Something on it, but nothing in it!" exclaimed Mayrant; at which
moderate pleasantry the custodian broke into extreme African merriment
and ambled away. "You needn't have done it," protested the Southerner,
and I naturally claimed my stranger's right to pay my respects in this
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