| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Treatise on Parents and Children by George Bernard Shaw: widely. Read Goethe's autobiography; and note that though he was
happy in his parents and had exceptional powers of observation,
divination, and story-telling, he knew less about his father and
mother than about most of the other people he mentions. I myself was
never on bad terms with my mother: we lived together until I was
forty-two years old, absolutely without the smallest friction of any
kind; yet when her death set me thinking curiously about our
relations, I realized that I knew very little about her. Introduce me
to a strange woman who was a child when I was a child, a girl when I
was a boy, an adolescent when I was an adolescent; and if we take
naturally to one another I will know more of her and she of me at the
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Elizabeth and her German Garden by Marie Annette Beauchamp: every turn, I should not like to have more than these two,
or rather one and a half--the assistant having stork-like
proclivities and going home in the autumn to his native Russia,
returning in the spring with the first warm winds.
I want to keep him over the winter, as there is much to be done
even then, and I sounded him on the point the other day.
He is the most abject-looking of human beings--lame, and afflicted
with a hideous eye-disease; but he is a good worker and plods
along unwearyingly from sunrise to dusk.
"Pray, my good stork," said I, or German words to that effect,
"why don't you stay here altogether, instead of going home and rioting
Elizabeth and her German Garden |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Animal Farm by George Orwell: "Comrades," he said, "here is a point that must be settled. The wild
creatures, such as rats and rabbits--are they our friends or our enemies?
Let us put it to the vote. I propose this question to the meeting: Are
rats comrades?"
The vote was taken at once, and it was agreed by an overwhelming majority
that rats were comrades. There were only four dissentients, the three dogs
and the cat, who was afterwards discovered to have voted on both sides.
Major continued:
"I have little more to say. I merely repeat, remember always your duty of
enmity towards Man and all his ways. Whatever goes upon two legs is an
enemy. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend. And
Animal Farm |
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 Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: they recruit themselves direct with heat and light. During the
time when she was dragging the bag of eggs behind her, the mother,
at the best moments of the day, came and held up her pill to the
sun. With her two hind-legs, she lifted it out of the ground, into
the full light; slowly she turned it and returned it, so that every
side might receive its share of the vivifying rays. Well, this
bath of life, which awakened the germs, is now prolonged to keep
the tender babes active.
Daily, if the sky be clear, the Lycosa, carrying her young, comes
up from the burrow, leans on the kerb and spends long hours basking
in the sun. Here, on their mother's back, the youngsters stretch
The Life of the Spider |
