| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Symposium by Plato: nature infuses into the lover.
Love will make men dare to die for their beloved--love alone; and women as
well as men. Of this, Alcestis, the daughter of Pelias, is a monument to
all Hellas; for she was willing to lay down her life on behalf of her
husband, when no one else would, although he had a father and mother; but
the tenderness of her love so far exceeded theirs, that she made them seem
to be strangers in blood to their own son, and in name only related to him;
and so noble did this action of hers appear to the gods, as well as to men,
that among the many who have done virtuously she is one of the very few to
whom, in admiration of her noble action, they have granted the privilege of
returning alive to earth; such exceeding honour is paid by the gods to the
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy: Fitzpiers stumbled and all but fell. Stretching down his hand to
ascertain the obstruction, it came in contact with a confused mass
of silken drapery and iron-work that conveyed absolutely no
explanatory idea to his mind at all. It was but the work of a
moment to strike a match; and then he saw a sight which congealed
his blood.
The man-trap was thrown; and between its jaws was part of a
woman's clothing--a patterned silk skirt--gripped with such
violence that the iron teeth had passed through it, skewering its
tissue in a score of places. He immediately recognized the skirt
as that of one of his wife's gowns--the gown that she had worn
The Woodlanders |
