| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare: The better for him: would I were so too!
TRANIO.
So could I, faith, boy, to have the next wish after,
That Lucentio indeed had Baptista's youngest daughter.
But, sirrah, not for my sake but your master's, I advise
You use your manners discreetly in all kind of companies:
When I am alone, why, then I am Tranio;
But in all places else your master, Lucentio.
LUCENTIO.
Tranio, let's go. One thing more rests, that thyself execute,
to make one among these wooers: if thou ask me why,
The Taming of the Shrew |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas: the last ray of the setting sun, he thought he saw the
barrel of a musket glitter from behind a hedge.
D'Artagnan had a quick eye and a prompt understanding. He
comprehended that the musket had not come there of itself,
and that he who bore it had not concealed himself behind a
hedge with any friendly intentions. He determined,
therefore, to direct his course as clear from it as he could
when, on the opposite side of the road, from behind a rock,
he perceived the extremity of another musket.
This was evidently an ambuscade.
The young man cast a glance at the first musket and saw,
The Three Musketeers |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Essays & Lectures by Oscar Wilde: for all time, who is, himself, a master of all time. That man is
Mr. Whistler.
* * * * * * * *
But, you will say, modern dress, that is bad. If you cannot paint
black cloth you could not have painted silken doublet. Ugly dress
is better for art - facts of vision, not of the object.
What is a picture? Primarily, a picture is a beautifully coloured
surface, merely, with no more spiritual message or meaning for you
than an exquisite fragment of Venetian glass or a blue tile from
the wall of Damascus. It is, primarily, a purely decorative thing,
a delight to look at.
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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 The Crisis in Russia by Arthur Ransome: Committee does not escape. He may be voted by his fellow
members into leaving a job he likes and taking up another he
detests in which they think his particular talents will better
serve the party aims. To become a member of the
Communist Party involves a kind of intellectual abdication,
or, to put it differently, a readiness at any moment to place
the collective wisdom of the party's Committee above one's
individual instincts or ideas. You may influence its
decisions, you may even get it to endorse your own, but
Lenin himself, if he were to fail on any occasion to obtain
the agreement of a majority in the Central Committee,
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