| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce: bridge he lost consciousness and was as one already dead.
From this state he was awakened -- ages later, it seemed to
him -- by the pain of a sharp pressure upon his throat,
followed by a sense of suffocation. Keen, poignant agonies
seemed to shoot from his neck downward through every fiber of
his body and limbs. These pains appeared to flash along well
defined lines of ramification and to beat with an
inconceivably rapid periodicity. They seemed like streams of
pulsating fire heating him to an intolerable temperature. As
to his head, he was conscious of nothing but a feeling of
fullness -- of congestion. These sensations were
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Hero of Our Time by M.Y. Lermontov: ing. My servants and maids will not be at home;
I have distributed tickets to all of them, and to
the princess's servants as well. I await you; come
without fail."
"Aha!" I said to myself, "so then it has
turned out at last as I thought it would."
At eight o'clock I went to see the conjurer.
The public assembled before the stroke of nine.
The performance began. On the back rows of
chairs I recognized Vera's and Princess Ligovski's
menservants and maids. They were all there,
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Voyage to Abyssinia by Father Lobo: his favour, and after a short conversation went away. Immediately
we were teazed by those who brought us the mules, and demanded to be
paid the hire of them; and had advice given us at the same time that
we should get a present ready for the King. The Chec Furt, who was
extremely ready to undertake any commission of this kind, would
needs direct us in the affair, and told us that our gifts ought to
be of greater value, because we had neglected making any such offer
at our first audience, contrary to the custom of that country. By
these pretences he obliged us to make a present to the value of
about twenty pounds, with which he seemed to be pleased, and told us
we had nothing to do but prepare to make our entry.
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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 Critias by Plato: characters have no reference to the actual facts. The desire to do honour
to his own family, and the connection with Solon, may have suggested the
introduction of his name. Why the Critias was never completed, whether
from accident, or from advancing age, or from a sense of the artistic
difficulty of the design, cannot be determined.
CRITIAS.
PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE: Critias, Hermocrates, Timaeus, Socrates.
TIMAEUS: How thankful I am, Socrates, that I have arrived at last, and,
like a weary traveller after a long journey, may be at rest! And I pray
the being who always was of old, and has now been by me revealed, to grant
that my words may endure in so far as they have been spoken truly and
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