| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Dream Life and Real Life by Olive Schreiner: old, faded woman? Can you forgive him his sins and his weaknesses, when
they hurt you most? If he were to lie a querulous invalid for twenty
years, would you be able to fold him in your arms all that time, and
comfort him, as a mother comforts her little child?" The woman drew her
breath heavily.
"Oh, I love him absolutely! I would be glad to die, if only I could once
know that he loved me better than anything in the world!"
The woman stood looking down at her. "Have you never thought of that other
woman; whether she could not perhaps make his life as perfect as you?" she
asked, slowly.
"Oh, no woman ever could be to him what I would be. I would live for him.
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: with me, at the time that my mother hath gone to her upper
chamber and turned her thoughts to sleep. Lo, to Sparta I
go and to sandy Pylos to seek tidings of my dear father's
return, if haply I may hear thereof.'
So spake he, and the good nurse Eurycleia wailed aloud, and
making lament spake to him winged words: 'Ah, wherefore,
dear child, hath such a thought arisen in thine heart? How
shouldst thou fare over wide lands, thou that art an only
child and well-beloved? As for him he hath perished,
Odysseus of the seed of Zeus, far from his own country in
the land of strangers. And yonder men, so soon as thou art
The Odyssey |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Margret Howth: A Story of To-day by Rebecca Harding Davis: writhing his face, and dulling his eyes.
"And you," he said, savagely, "you sit by the road-side, with
help in your hands, and Christ in your heart, and call your life
lost, quarrel with your God, because that mass of selfishness has
left you,--because you are balked in your puny hope! Look at
these women. What is their loss, do you think? Go back, will
you, and drone out your life whimpering over your lost dream, and
go to Shakspeare for tragedy when you want it? Tragedy! Come
here,--let me hear what you call this."
He led her through the passage, up a narrow flight of stairs. An
old woman in a flaring cap sat at the top, nodding,--wakening now
Margret Howth: A Story of To-day |
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 McTeague by Frank Norris: the streets all night because I ain't got a place to sleep.
Will you let me in? Say, will you? Huh?"
"No."
"Well, will you give me some money then--just a little?
Give me a dollar. Give me half a dol--Say, give me a
DIME, an' I can get a cup of coffee."
"No."
The dentist paused and looked at her with curious
intentness, bewildered, nonplussed.
"Say, you--you must be crazy, Trina. I--I--wouldn't let a
DOG go hungry."
McTeague |
