| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte: really was, contempt. I settled his doubts, by suddenly retrieving
my gravity and desiring him to walk away, for I came to see Linton,
not him. He reddened - I saw that by the moonlight - dropped his
hand from the latch, and skulked off, a picture of mortified
vanity. He imagined himself to be as accomplished as Linton, I
suppose, because he could spell his own name; and was marvellously
discomfited that I didn't think the same.'
'Stop, Miss Catherine, dear!' - I interrupted. 'I shall not scold,
but I don't like your conduct there. If you had remembered that
Hareton was your cousin as much as Master Heathcliff, you would
have felt how improper it was to behave in that way. At least, it
Wuthering Heights |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Mother by Owen Wister: Again I thought of Ethel and October, and what a difference it would be
to begin our modest housekeeping on sixty instead of forty thousand
dollars a year, outside of what I was earning. Mr. Beverly now rang a
bell. 'You happen to have come,' said he, 'on a morning when I can really
do something for you out of the common. Bring me (it was a clerk he
addressed) one of those Petunia circulars. Now here you can see at a
glance for yourself.' He began reading the prospectus rapidly aloud to me
while I followed its paragraphs with my own eye. His strong,
well-polished thumb-nail ran heavily but speedily down the columns of
figures and such words as gross receipts, increase of population, sinking
fund, redeemable at 105 after 1920, churned vigorously and meaninglessly
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini: warned you that I intended to do my best from the start to put the
audience in a good humour with me. Mademoiselle very nearly ruined
everything by refusing to reflect any of my terror. She was not
even startled. Another time, mademoiselle, I shall give you full
warning of my every intention."
She crimsoned under her grease-paint. But before she could find an
answer of sufficient venom, her father was rating her soundly for
her stupidity - the more soundly because himself he had been deceived
by Scaramouche's supreme acting.
Scaramouche's success in the first act was more than confirmed as
the performance proceeded. Completely master of himself by 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 Symposium by Xenophon: of," canto iii.:
How many scores a Flea will jump
Of his own length from Head to Rump
Which Socrates and Chaerephon
In vain essayed so long agon.
But here Antisthenes, appealing to Philippus, interposed: You are a
man full of comparisons.[13] Does not this worthy person strike you as
somewhat like a bully seeking to pick a quarrel?[14]
[13] Like Biron, "L. L. L." v. 2. 854. Or, "you are a clever
caricaturist." See Plat. "Symp." 215 A; Hug, "Enleitung," xiv.;
Aristoph. "Birds," 804 (Frere, p. 173); "Wasps," 1309.
The Symposium |
