| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Caesar's Commentaries in Latin by Julius Caesar: suorum nostram aciem premebant. Id cum animadvertisset P. Crassus
adulescens, qui equitatui praeerat, quod expeditior erat quam ii qui inter
aciem versabantur, tertiam aciem laborantibus nostris subsidio misit.
Ita proelium restitutum est, atque omnes hostes terga verterunt nec
prius fugere destiterunt quam ad flumen Rhenum milia passuum ex eo loco
circiter L pervenerunt. Ibi perpauci aut viribus confisi tranare
contenderunt aut lintribus inventis sibi salutem reppererunt. In his fuit
Ariovistus, qui naviculam deligatam ad ripam nactus ea profugit; reliquos
omnes consecuti equites nostri interfecerunt. Duae fuerunt Ariovisti
uxores, una Sueba natione, quam domo secum eduxerat, altera Norica, regis
Voccionis soror, quam in Gallia duxerat a fratre missam: utraque in ea
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith: man in the world I would apply to for assistance. But Miss Neville's
person is all I ask, and that is mine, both from her deceased father's
consent, and her own inclination.
MARLOW. Happy man! You have talents and art to captivate any woman.
I'm doom'd to adore the sex, and yet to converse with the only part of
it I despise. This stammer in my address, and this awkward
prepossessing visage of mine, can never permit me to soar above the
reach of a milliner's 'prentice, or one of the duchesses of Drury-lane.
Pshaw! this fellow here to interrupt us.
Enter HARDCASTLE.
HARDCASTLE. Gentlemen, once more you are heartily welcome. Which is
She Stoops to Conquer |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Where There's A Will by Mary Roberts Rinehart: and Mr. Sam was for killing him and burying the body in the snow.
At half past five I just about gave up. I was sitting in front
of the fire wondering why I'd taken influenza the spring before
from getting my feet wet in a shower, when I had been standing in
a mineral spring for so many years that it's a wonder I'm not
web-footed. It was when I had influenza that the old doctor made
the will, you remember. Maybe I was crying, I don't recall.
It was dark outside, and nothing inside but firelight. Suddenly
I seemed to feel somebody looking at the back of my neck and
I turned around. There was a man standing outside one of the
windows, staring in.
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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 Elizabeth and her German Garden by Marie Annette Beauchamp: produce an effect that a snug service in a well-lit church never would.
Last night we took Irais and Minora, and drove the three lonely
miles in a sleigh. It was pitch-dark, and blowing great guns.
We sat wrapped up to our eyes in furs, and as mute as a funeral procession.
We are going to the burial of our last year's <157> sins,"
said Irais, as we started; and there certainly was a funereal sort
of feeling in the air. Up in our gallery pew we tried to decipher
our chorales by the light of the spluttering tallow candles stuck in
holes in the woodwork, the flames wildly blown about by the draughts.
The wind banged against the windows in great gusts, screaming louder
than the organ, and threatening to blow out the agitated lights together.
Elizabeth and her German Garden |
