| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The House of Dust by Conrad Aiken: Death is beautiful, for death is strange;
Death is one dream out of another flowing;
Death is a chorded music, softly going
By sweet transition from key to richer key.
Death is a meeting place of sea and sea.'
VI. ADELE AND DAVIS
She turned her head on the pillow, and cried once more.
And drawing a shaken breath, and closing her eyes,
To shut out, if she could, this dingy room,
The wigs and costumes scattered around the floor,--
Yellows and greens in the dark,--she walked again
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Egmont by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe: between two evils; as in a lottery, thou dost grasp in the dark future; what
thou hast drawn remains still unrolled, to thee unknown whether it is a
prize or a blank! (He becomes attentive, like one who hears a noise, and
steps to the window.) 'Tis he! Egmont! Did thy steed bear thee hither so
lightly, and started not at the scent of blood, at the spirit with the naked
sword who received thee at the gate? Dismount! Lo, now thou hast one
foot in the grave! And now both! Ay, caress him, and for the last time
stroke his neck for the gallant service he has rendered thee. And for me no
choice is left. The delusion, in which Egmont ventures here to-day, cannot
a second time deliver him into my hands! Hark! (Ferdinand and Silva
enter hastily.) Obey my orders! I swerve not from my purpose.! shall
Egmont |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Mirror of the Sea by Joseph Conrad: dead, and my brother has gone into the bush."
In this way I learned that our Dominic had a brother. As to "going
into the bush," this only means that a man has done his duty
successfully in the pursuit of a hereditary vendetta. The feud
which had existed for ages between the families of Cervoni and
Brunaschi was so old that it seemed to have smouldered out at last.
One evening Pietro Brunaschi, after a laborious day amongst his
olive-trees, sat on a chair against the wall of his house with a
bowl of broth on his knees and a piece of bread in his hand.
Dominic's brother, going home with a gun on his shoulder, found a
sudden offence in this picture of content and rest so obviously
The Mirror of the Sea |
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: submarine campaign had succeeded in putting an end to our
imports of food from the Americas. From the moment of
the Declaration of War, Russia was in the position of one
"holding out," of a city standing a siege without a water
supply, for her imports were so necessary to her economy
that they may justly be considered as essential irrigation.
There could be no question for her of improvement, of
strengthening. She was faced with the fact until the war
should end she had to do with what she had, and that the
things she had formerly counted on importing would be
replaced by guns and shells, to be used, as it turned out, in
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