| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring by George Bernard Shaw: the abbreviated fashionable version. Thus Lohengrin came upon the
ordinary operatic stage as a more advanced departure from current
operatic models than its composer had made it. Still, it is
unmistakably an opera, with chorus, concerted pieces, grand
finales, and a heroine who, if she does not sing florid
variations with flute obbligato, is none the less a very
perceptible prima donna. In everything but musical technique the
change from Lohengrin to The Rhine Gold is quite revolutionary.
The explanation is that Night Falls On The Gods came in between
them, although its music was not finished until twenty years
after that of The Rhine Gold, and thus belongs to a later and
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tales of the Klondyke by Jack London: Siwash could not withstand you, and like the caribou and the bear,
must perish in the cold. So I came into the warm and sat among
you, by your fires, and behold, I became one of you, I have seen
much in my time. I have known strange things, and bucked big, on
big trails, with men of many breeds. And because of these things,
I measure deeds after your manner, and judge men, and think
thoughts. Wherefore, when I speak harshly of one of your own
kind, I know you will not take it amiss; and when I speak high of
one of my father's people, you will not take it upon you to say,
'Sitka Charley is Siwash, and there is a crooked light in his eyes
and small honor to his tongue.' Is it not so?"
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from My Antonia by Willa Cather: When Mrs. Shimerda opened the bag and stirred the contents
with her hand, it gave out a salty, earthy smell,
very pungent, even among the other odours of that cave.
She measured a teacup full, tied it up in a bit of sacking,
and presented it ceremoniously to grandmother.
`For cook,' she announced. `Little now; be very much when cook,'
spreading out her hands as if to indicate that the pint would
swell to a gallon. `Very good. You no have in this country.
All things for eat better in my country.'
`Maybe so, Mrs. Shimerda,' grandmother said dryly.
`I can't say but I prefer our bread to yours, myself.'
My Antonia |
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 Pivot of Civilization by Margaret Sanger: and cultural cost of these classes to the community, when we become
fully cognizant of the burden of the imbecile upon the whole human
race; when we see the funds that should be available for human
development, for scientific, artistic and philosophic research, being
diverted annually, by hundreds of millions of dollars, to the care and
segregation of men, women, and children who never should have been
born. The advocate of Birth Control realizes as well as all
intelligent thinkers the dangers of interfering with personal liberty.
Our whole philosophy is, in fact, based upon the fundamental
assumption that man is a self-conscious, self-governing creature, that
he should not be treated as a domestic animal; that he must be left
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