| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Seraphita by Honore de Balzac: was the soul of this wholly material fragment of an existence. Any one
seeing David alone by himself would have thought him a corpse; let
Seraphita enter, let her voice be heard, or a mention of her be made,
and the dead came forth from his grave and recovered speech and
motion. The dry bones were not more truly awakened by the divine
breath in the valley of Jehoshaphat, and never was that apocalyptic
vision better realized than in this Lazarus issuing from the sepulchre
into life at the voice of a young girl. His language, which was always
figurative and often incomprehensible, prevented the inhabitants of
the village from talking with him; but they respected a mind that
deviated so utterly from common ways,--a thing which the masses
Seraphita |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring by George Bernard Shaw: there are yet several dramas to be interpolated in The Ring after
The Valkyries before the allegory can tell the whole story, and
that the first of these interpolated dramas will be much more
like a revised Rienzi than like Siegfried. If anyone doubts the
extent to which Wagner's eyes had been opened to the
administrative-childishness and romantic conceit of the heroes of
the revolutionary generation that served its apprenticeship on
the barricades of 1848-9, and perished on those of 187@ under
Thiers' mitrailleuses, let him read Eine Kapitulation, that
scandalous burlesque in which the poet and composer of Siegfried,
with the levity of a schoolboy, mocked the French republicans who
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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 Paradise Lost by John Milton: From what we fear for both, let us make short, --
Let us seek Death; -- or, he not found, supply
With our own hands his office on ourselves:
Why stand we longer shivering under fears,
That show no end but death, and have the power,
Of many ways to die the shortest choosing,
Destruction with destruction to destroy? --
She ended here, or vehement despair
Broke off the rest: so much of death her thoughts
Had entertained, as dyed her cheeks with pale.
But Adam, with such counsel nothing swayed,
Paradise Lost |
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 Madame Firmiani by Honore de Balzac: "Uncle," said Octave, with a manner that was tender and grave, "you
are totally mistaken. Madame Firmiani deserves your esteem, and all
the adoration the world gives her."
"Youth, youth! always the same!" cried Monsieur de Bourbonne. "Well,
go on; tell me the same old story. But please remember that my
experience in gallantry is not of yesterday."
"My dear, kind uncle, here is a letter which will tell you nearly
all," said Octave, taking it from an elegant portfolio, HER gift, no
doubt. "When you have read it I will tell you the rest, and you will
then know a Madame Firmiani who is unknown to the world."
"I haven't my spectacles; read it aloud."
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