| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Talisman by Walter Scott: "but had I been accessible to the fever, I had caught it long
since by the bed of my master."
The Bishop of Tyre blushed, for he had rather avoided the
presence of the sick monarch; and he bid the baron lead on.
As they paused before the wretched hut in which Kenneth of the
Leopard and his follower abode, the bishop said to De Vaux, "Now,
of a surety, my lord, these Scottish Knights have worse care of
their followers than we of our dogs. Here is a knight, valiant,
they say, in battle, and thought fitting to be graced with
charges of weight in time of truce, whose esquire of the body is
lodged worse than in the worst dog-kennel in England. What say
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Mrs. Warren's Profession by George Bernard Shaw: nuptial chamber is in view of the audience. Inside, the princess
awaits her bridegroom. A duenna is in attendance. The
bridegroom enters. His sole desire is to escape from a marriage
which is hateful to him. An idea strikes him. He will assault
the duenna, and get ignominiously expelled from the palace by his
indignant father-in-law. To his horror, when he proceeds to
carry out this stratagem, the duenna, far from raising an alarm,
is flattered, delighted, and compliant. The assaulter becomes
the assaulted. He flings her angrily to the ground, where she
remains placidly. He flies. The father enters; dismisses the
duenna; and listens at the keyhole of his daughter's nuptial
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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 Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac: her prayers, and then began the business of dressing,--a business
which henceforth was to have a meaning. First she brushed and smoothed
her chestnut hair and twisted its heavy masses to the top of her head
with the utmost care, preventing the loose tresses from straying, and
giving to her head a symmetry which heightened the timid candor of her
face; for the simplicity of these accessories accorded well with the
innocent sincerity of its lines. As she washed her hands again and
again in the cold water which hardened and reddened the skin, she
looked at her handsome round arms and asked herself what her cousin
did to make his hands so softly white, his nails so delicately curved.
She put on new stockings and her prettiest shoes. She laced her corset
Eugenie Grandet |
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 Agesilaus by Xenophon: formidable to his foes as Agesilaus when he had reached the limit of
mortal life. Never, I suppose, was there a foeman whose removal came
with a greater sense of relief to the enemy than that of Agesilaus,
though a veteran when he died. Never was there a leader who inspired
stouter courage in the hearts of fellow-combatants than this man with
one foot planted in the grave. Never was a young man snatched from a
circle of loving friends with tenderer regret than this old graybeard.
[11] Reading, {megalon kai kalon ephiemenos, eos kai to soma, k.t.l.}
See Breitenbach.
The benefactor of his fatherland, absolutely to the very end; with
bounteous hand, even in the arms of death, dealing out largesse[12] to
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