| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Brother of Daphne by Dornford Yates: curiously at the booth. Then he saw me and beat a hasty
retreat.
"It is in a good cause," I urged. "You don't know the Bananas;
they're absurdly- er -straight."
"It's all very well for you," she said; "you know everybody
here. But it would be an impossible position for me; I don't
know a soul. Now, if we were both strangers- "
"Well?"
"Well, then they wouldn't worry as to who we were and what we
had to do with one another."
"Then let's both be strangers."
The Brother of Daphne |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Poems of William Blake by William Blake: And heard this voice of sorrow breathed from the hollow pit.
Why cannot the Ear be closed to its own destruction?
Or the glistening Eye to the poison of a smile!
Why are Eyelids stord with arrows ready drawn,
Where a thousand fighting men in ambush lie!
Or an Eye of gifts & graces showring fruits & coined gold!
Why a Tongue impress'd with honey from every wind?
Why an Ear, a whirlpool fierce to draw creations in?
Why a Nostril wide inhaling terror trembling & affright
Why a tender curb upon the youthful burning boy?
Why a little curtain of flesh on the bed of our desire?
Poems of William Blake |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Cruise of the Jasper B. by Don Marquis: him with a heavy cavalry saber; in his excitement he still held
his harmonica in his mouth and blew blasts upon it as he fought.
The Rev. Simeon Calthrop, in a loud agitated voice, sang hymns as
he swung his cutlass. And, among the legs of the combatants,
leapt and snapped Teddy the Pomeranian, biting friend and foe
indiscriminately upon the ankles.
But gradually the weight of superior numbers began to tell.
Farnsworth staggered from the fight with a face covered with
blood which blinded him. Cap'n Abernethy likewise was bleeding
from a wound in the head; George the Greek and Watson Bard were
hurt, but both fought on. The crew of the Jasper B. and their
|
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 Prince Otto by Robert Louis Stevenson: 'I see,' replied the Prince; 'that is very gratifying. Well, sir,
the great thing for the good of one's country is, first of all, to
be a good man. All springs from there. For my part, although you
are right in thinking that I have to do with politics, I am unfit by
intellect and temper for a leading role. I was intended, I fear,
for a subaltern. Yet we have all something to command, Mr. Fritz,
if it be only our own temper; and a man about to marry must look
closely to himself. The husband's, like the prince's, is a very
artificial standing; and it is hard to be kind in either. Do you
follow that?'
'O yes, I follow that,' replied the young man, sadly chop-fallen
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