| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Wife, et al by Anton Chekhov: for your health. Will you take it? Yes? Nikolay Stepanovitch
darling, yes?"
She looked greedily into my face and repeated: "Yes, you will
take it?"
"No, my dear, I won't take it . . " I said. "Thank you."
She turned her back upon me and bowed her head. Probably I
refused her in a tone which made further conversation about money
impossible.
"Go home to bed," I said. "We will see each other tomorrow."
"So you don't consider me your friend?" she asked dejectedly.
"I don't say that. But your money would be no use to me now."
|
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 Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring by George Bernard Shaw: revenue. It does not even support him: he has to go out and
forage for food and drink. In fact, he is on the way to his
drinking-pool when Siegfried kills him. And Siegfried himself has
no more use for gold than Fafnir: the only difference between
them in this respect is that Siegfried does not waste his time in
watching a barren treasure that is no use to him, whereas Fafnir
sacrifices his humanity and his life merely to prevent anybody
else getting it. This contrast is true to human nature; but it
shunts The Ring drama off the economic lines of the allegory. In
real life, Fafnir is not a miser: he seeks dividends, comfortable
life, and admission to the circles of Wotan and Loki. His only
|