| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Great Big Treasury of Beatrix Potter by Beatrix Potter: upset kitchen stove and stared; and
Jane leant against the kitchen dresser
and smiled--but neither of them
made any remark.
The book-case and the bird-cage
were rescued from under the coal-
box--but Hunca Munca has got the
cradle, and some of Lucinda's
clothes.
She also has some useful pots and
pans, and several other things.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Oscar Wilde Miscellaneous by Oscar Wilde: Poe at the Theatre de L'OEuvre in Paris, but except for an account
in the Daily Telegraph the incident was hardly mentioned in England.
I gather that the performance was only a qualified success, though
Lugne Poe's triumph as Herod was generally acknowledged. In 1901,
within a year of the author's death, it was produced in Berlin; from
that moment it has held the European stage. It has run for a longer
consecutive period in Germany than any play by any Englishman, not
excepting Shakespeare. Its popularity has extended to all countries
where it is not prohibited. It is performed throughout Europe, Asia
and America. It is played even in Yiddish. This is remarkable in
view of the many dramas by French and German writers who treat of
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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 Four Arthurian Romances by Chretien DeTroyes: named came King Ban of Gomeret, and he had in his company only
young men, beardless as yet on chin and lip. A numerous and gay
band he brought two hundred of them in his suite; and there was
none, whoever he be, but had a falcon or tercel, a merlin or a
sparrow-hawk, or some precious pigeon-hawk, golden or mewed.
Kerrin, the old King of Riel, brought no youth, but rather three
hundred companions of whom the youngest was seven score years
old. Because of their great age, their heads were all as white
as snow, and their beards reached down to their girdles. Arthur
held them in great respect. The lord of the dwarfs came next,
Bilis, the king of Antipodes. This king of whom I speak was a
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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 Parmenides by Plato: two: we have even numbers multiplied into even, and odd into even, and
even into odd numbers. But if one is, and both odd and even numbers are
implied in one, must not every number exist? And number is infinite, and
therefore existence must be infinite, for all and every number partakes of
being; therefore being has the greatest number of parts, and every part,
however great or however small, is equally one. But can one be in many
places and yet be a whole? If not a whole it must be divided into parts
and represented by a number corresponding to the number of the parts. And
if so, we were wrong in saying that being has the greatest number of parts;
for being is coequal and coextensive with one, and has no more parts than
one; and so the abstract one broken up into parts by being is many and
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