| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane: came level belchings of yellow flame that caused
an inhuman whistling in the air.
The men, halted, had opportunity to see some
of their comrades dropping with moans and
shrieks. A few lay under foot, still or wailing.
And now for an instant the men stood, their rifles
slack in their hands, and watched the regiment
dwindle. They appeared dazed and stupid. This
spectacle seemed to paralyze them, overcome
them with a fatal fascination. They stared wood-
enly at the sights, and, lowering their eyes, looked
The Red Badge of Courage |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Prufrock/Other Observations by T. S. Eliot: Suddenly, his expression in a glass.
My self-possession gutters; we are really in the dark.
"For everybody said so, all our friends,
They all were sure our feelings would relate
So closely! I myself can hardly understand.
We must leave it now to fate.
You will write, at any rate.
Perhaps it is not too late
shall sit here, serving tea to friends."
And I must borrow every changing
find expression ... dance, dance
Prufrock/Other Observations |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Lady Baltimore by Owen Wister: He took himself off with a certain alacrity, giving an impatient cut with
his stick at a sparrow in the middle of Worship Street, nor did I see him
again this day, although, after hurriedly getting my letters (for the
starting hour of the boat had now drawn near), I followed where he had
gone down Court Street, and his cosmopolitan figure would have been easy
to descry at any distance along that scantily peopled pavement. He had
evidently found the bank and was getting his money.
David of the yellow heir and his limpid-looking bride were on the
horrible little excursion boat, watching for me and keeping with some
difficulty a chair next themselves that I might not have to stand up all
the way; and, as I came aboard, the bride called out to me her relief,
|
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 Symposium by Plato: lovers do not like the trouble of pleading their suit. In Ionia and other
places, and generally in countries which are subject to the barbarians, the
custom is held to be dishonourable; loves of youths share the evil repute
in which philosophy and gymnastics are held, because they are inimical to
tyranny; for the interests of rulers require that their subjects should be
poor in spirit (compare Arist. Politics), and that there should be no
strong bond of friendship or society among them, which love, above all
other motives, is likely to inspire, as our Athenian tyrants learned by
experience; for the love of Aristogeiton and the constancy of Harmodius had
a strength which undid their power. And, therefore, the ill-repute into
which these attachments have fallen is to be ascribed to the evil condition
|
