| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Sesame and Lilies by John Ruskin: dies in wild testimony against his error:-
"Oh, murderous coxcomb! what should such a fool
Do with so good a wife?"
In Romeo and Juliet, the wise and brave stratagem of the wife is
brought to ruinous issue by the reckless impatience of her husband.
In Winter's Tale, and in Cymbeline, the happiness and existence of
two princely households, lost through long years, and imperilled to
the death by the folly and obstinacy of the husbands, are redeemed
at last by the queenly patience and wisdom of the wives. In Measure
for Measure, the foul injustice of the judge, and the foul cowardice
of the brother, are opposed to the victorious truth and adamantine
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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 My Aunt Margaret's Mirror by Walter Scott: not be without some touch of consolation; and that the Dowager
Lady Forester, if so she was doomed to be called, might have a
source of happiness unknown to the wife of the gayest and finest
gentleman in Scotland. This conviction became stronger as they
learned from inquiries made at headquarters that Sir Philip was
no longer with the army--though whether he had been taken or
slain in some of those skirmishes which were perpetually
occurring, and in which he loved to distinguish himself, or
whether he had, for some unknown reason or capricious change of
mind, voluntarily left the service, none of his countrymen in the
camp of the Allies could form even a conjecture. Meantime his
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