| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lady Windermere's Fan by Oscar Wilde: would have gone back to the life of degradation you and he had
prepared for me - I was going back - but to stay himself at home,
and to send you as his messenger - oh! it was infamous - infamous.
MRS. ERLYNNE. [C.] Lady Windermere, you wrong me horribly - you
wrong your husband horribly. He doesn't know you are here - he
thinks you are safe in your own house. He thinks you are asleep in
your own room. He never read the mad letter you wrote to him!
LADY WINDERMERE. [R.] Never read it!
MRS. ERLYNNE. No - he knows nothing about it.
LADY WINDERMERE. How simple you think me! [Going to her.] You
are lying to me!
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy: hourglass--the latter because of a peculiar pleasure she
derived from watching a material representation of time's
gradual glide away. She seldom schemed, but when she
did scheme, her plans showed rather the comprehensive
strategy of a general than the small arts called womanish,
though she could utter oracles of Delphian ambiguity
when she did not choose to be direct. In heaven she
will probably sit between the Heloises and the Cleopatras.
8 - Those Who Are Found Where There Is Said to Be Nobody
As soon as the sad little boy had withdrawn from the fire
he clasped the money tight in the palm of his hand,
Return of the Native |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Meno by Plato: existed in a previous state, then it will exist in a future state, for a
law of alternation pervades all things.' And, 'If the ideas exist, then
the soul exists; if not, not.' It is to be observed, both in the Meno and
the Phaedo, that Socrates expresses himself with diffidence. He speaks in
the Phaedo of the words with which he has comforted himself and his
friends, and will not be too confident that the description which he has
given of the soul and her mansions is exactly true, but he 'ventures to
think that something of the kind is true.' And in the Meno, after dwelling
upon the immortality of the soul, he adds, 'Of some things which I have
said I am not altogether confident' (compare Apology; Gorgias). From this
class of uncertainties he exempts the difference between truth and
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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 Octopus by Frank Norris: that at the time he believed had been an inspiration, he had
failed. The people would not consider him, would not believe
that he could do them service. Then suddenly he seemed to
remember. The resolute set of his lips returned once more.
Pushing his way through the crowded streets, he went on towards
the stable where he had left his pony.
Meanwhile, in the Opera House, a great commotion had occurred.
Magnus Derrick had appeared.
Only a sense of enormous responsibility, of gravest duty could
have prevailed upon Magnus to have left his house and the dead
body of his son that day. But he was the President of the
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