| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith: counterfeit modesty; but I'll be hanged if a modest man can ever
counterfeit impudence.
HASTINGS. If you could but say half the fine things to them that I
have heard you lavish upon the bar-maid of an inn, or even a college
bed-maker----
MARLOW. Why, George, I can't say fine things to them; they freeze,
they petrify me. They may talk of a comet, or a burning mountain, or
some such bagatelle; but, to me, a modest woman, drest out in all her
finery, is the most tremendous object of the whole creation.
HASTINGS. Ha! ha! ha! At this rate, man, how can you ever expect to
marry?
She Stoops to Conquer |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Koran: Said Moses unto his people, 'Ask for aid from God and be patient;
verily, the earth is God's! He gives it for an inheritance to whom
He pleases of His servants, and the future is for those who fear.'
They said, 'We have been hurt before thou didst come to us, and
since thou hast come to us.' Said he, 'It may be that your Lord will
destroy your foe, and will make you succeed him in the earth; and He
will see how ye act.'
We had overtaken Pharaoh's people with the years (of dearth) and
scarcity of fruits, that haply they might remember; but when there
came to them a 'good thing they said, 'This is ours;' and if there
befel them an evil, they took the augury from Moses and those with
The Koran |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Alexandria and her Schools by Charles Kingsley: which formed a descending chain of persons, downward from the highest
Deities to heroes, and to the guardian angel of each man; the meed of
the philosopher being, that by self-culture and self-restraint he could
rise above the tutelage of some lower and more earthly daemon, and
become the pupil of a God, and finally a God himself.
These contradictions need not lower the great Father of Neoplatonism in
our eyes, as a moral being. All accounts of him seem to prove him to
have been what Apollo, in a lengthy oracle, declared him to have been,
"good and gentle, and benignant exceedingly, and pleasant in all his
conversation." He gave good advice about earthly matters, was a
faithful steward of moneys deposited with him, a guardian of widows and
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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 The Secret Places of the Heart by H. G. Wells: as my culminating want. I want a world in order, a
disciplined mankind going on to greater things. Don't you?"
"Now you tell me of it," she said with a smile, "I do."
"But before--?"
"No. You've made it clear. It wasn't clear before."
"I've been talking of this sort of thing with my friend Dr.
Martineau. And I've been thinking as well as talking. That
perhaps is why I'm so clear and positive."
"I don't complain that you are clear and positive. I've been
coming along the same way. . . . It's refreshing to meet
you."
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