| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Master of Ballantrae by Robert Louis Stevenson: dulness, the same petty greed, CETTE LENTEUR D'HEBETE QUI ME FAIT
RAGER; it is strange I should have such a brother. Even Square-
toes has a certain vivacity when his stake is imperilled; but the
dreariness of a game with you I positively lack language to
depict."
Mr. Henry continued to look at his cards, as though very maturely
considering some play; but his mind was elsewhere.
"Dear God, will this never be done?" cries the Master. "QUEL
LOURDEAU! But why do I trouble you with French expressions, which
are lost on such an ignoramus? A LOURDEAU, my dear brother, is as
we might say a bumpkin, a clown, a clodpole: a fellow without
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lady Windermere's Fan by Oscar Wilde: hand in hand. To shut one's eyes to half of life that one may live
securely is as though one blinded oneself that one might walk with
more safety in a land of pit and precipice.
LORD WINDERMERE. [Moves down with her.] Darling, why do you say
that?
LADY WINDERMERE. [Sits on sofa.] Because I, who had shut my eyes
to life, came to the brink. And one who had separated us -
LORD WINDERMERE. We were never separated.
LADY WINDERMERE. We never must be again. O Arthur, don't love me
less, and I will trust you more. I will trust you absolutely. Let
us go to Selby. In the Rose Garden at Selby the roses are white
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Mother by Owen Wister: man and about forty-five. No doubt he has older sisters and brothers. But
if he has not, his mother can hardly be less than sixty-five, and he has
probably been married for several years. He might easily have a daughter
coming out, next winter, and a son at Harvard or Yale; and if their
grandmother's hair is not grey, that is quite as unnatural as her
speculating in monopolised eggs in this way at her age. She must be a
very unladylike person.'"
"Ethel, I saw, was excited. Therefore I made no more point of her
theories concerning the appearance and family circle of old Mrs. Beverly.
But in justice to myself I felt obliged to remind her, first, that I was
investing, not speculating, and second, that it was Mr. Beverly's advice
|
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 De Profundis by Oscar Wilde: single bud, and the low ground nest of the lark may hold the joy
that is to herald the feet of many rose-red dawns. So perhaps
whatever beauty of life still remains to me is contained in some
moment of surrender, abasement, and humiliation. I can, at any
rate, merely proceed on the lines of my own development, and,
accepting all that has happened to me, make myself worthy of it.
People used to say of me that I was too individualistic. I must be
far more of an individualist than ever I was. I must get far more
out of myself than ever I got, and ask far less of the world than
ever I asked. Indeed, my ruin came not from too great
individualism of life, but from too little. The one disgraceful,
|
