| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from In the Cage by Henry James: possession; in consonance with which it was only when they parted
for the night at her door that he referred again to what she had
told him.
"Have you seen him since?"
"Since the night in the Park? No, not once."
"Oh, what a cad!" said Mr. Mudge.
CHAPTER XX
It was not till the end of October that she saw Captain Everard
again, and on that occasion--the only one of all the series on
which hindrance had been so utter--no communication with him proved
possible. She had made out even from the cage that it was a
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz by L. Frank Baum: He was not going very fast, but on his flanks specks of foam began to
appear and at times he would tremble like a leaf.
The sky had grown darker again and the wind made queer sobbing sounds
as it swept over the valley.
Suddenly there was a rending, tearing sound, and the earth split into
another great crack just beneath the spot where the horse was
standing. With a wild neigh of terror the animal fell bodily into the
pit, drawing the buggy and its occupants after him.
Dorothy grabbed fast hold of the buggy top and the boy did the same.
The sudden rush into space confused them so that they could not think.
Blackness engulfed them on every side, and in breathless silence they
Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Passionate Pilgrim by William Shakespeare: The sun look'd on the world with glorious eye,
Yet not so wistly as this queen on him.
He, spying her, bounced in, whereas he stood:
'O Jove,' quoth she, 'why was not I a flood!'
VII.
Fair is my love, but not so fair as fickle;
Mild as a dove, but neither true nor trusty;
Brighter than glass, and yet, as glass is brittle;
Softer than wax, and yet, as iron, rusty:
A lily pale, with damask dye to grace her,
None fairer, nor none falser to deface her.
|
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 Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche: would have half-killed himself with laughter or irritation: but
we--accept precisely this wild motleyness, this medley of the
most delicate, the most coarse, and the most artificial, with a
secret confidence and cordiality; we enjoy it as a refinement of
art reserved expressly for us, and allow ourselves to be as
little disturbed by the repulsive fumes and the proximity of the
English populace in which Shakespeare's art and taste lives, as
perhaps on the Chiaja of Naples, where, with all our senses
awake, we go our way, enchanted and voluntarily, in spite of the
drain-odour of the lower quarters of the town. That as men of the
"historical sense" we have our virtues, is not to be disputed:--
Beyond Good and Evil |
