| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Reef by Edith Wharton: message--at any rate I must decide on something."
Darrow saw that the reality of the situation had suddenly
forced itself upon her. "I MUST decide on something,"
she repeated.
He would have liked to postpone the return, to persuade her
to drive directly to the Bois for dinner. It would have
been easy enough to remind her that she could not start for
Joigny that evening, and that therefore it was of no moment
whether she received the Farlows' answer then or a few hours
later; but for some reason he hesitated to use this
argument, which had come so naturally to him the day before.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Dark Lady of the Sonnets by George Bernard Shaw: arm._
THE LADY. Where am I? What art thou?
THE MAN. I cry your mercy. I have mistook your person all this
while. Methought you were my Mary: my mistress.
THE LADY. _[outraged]_ Profane fellow: how do you dare?
THE MAN. Be not wroth with me, lady. My mistress is a marvellous
proper woman. But she does not speak so well as you. "All the
perfumes of Arabia"! That was well said: spoken with good accent and
excellent discretion.
THE LADY. Have I been in speech with you here?
THE MAN. Why, yes, fair lady. Have you forgot it?
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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 Men of Iron by Howard Pyle: by-and-by it was pleasanter to sit looking on at the sports and
the games of the younger lads than to take active part in them.
These three years of his life that had thus passed had been very
full; full mostly of work, grinding and monotonous; of training
dull, dry, laborious. For Sir James Lee was a taskmaster as hard
as iron and seemingly as cold as a stone. For two, perhaps for
three, weeks Myles entered into his new exercises with all the
enthusiasm that novelty brings; but these exercises hardly varied
a tittle from day to day, and soon became a duty, and finally a
hard and grinding task. He used, in the earlier days of his
castle life, to hate the dull monotony of the tri-weekly hacking
Men of Iron |
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 Hamlet by William Shakespeare: Why seemes it so particular with thee
Ham. Seemes Madam? Nay, it is: I know not Seemes:
'Tis not alone my Inky Cloake (good Mother)
Nor Customary suites of solemne Blacke,
Nor windy suspiration of forc'd breath,
No, nor the fruitfull Riuer in the Eye,
Nor the deiected hauiour of the Visage,
Together with all Formes, Moods, shewes of Griefe,
That can denote me truly. These indeed Seeme,
For they are actions that a man might play:
But I haue that Within, which passeth show;
Hamlet |
