| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: but I felt languid and unable to reflect on all that had passed.
The whole series of my life appeared to me as a dream; I sometimes
doubted if indeed it were all true, for it never presented itself
to my mind with the force of reality.
As the images that floated before me became more distinct, I grew
feverish; a darkness pressed around me; no one was near me who
soothed me with the gentle voice of love; no dear hand supported me.
The physician came and prescribed medicines, and the old woman
prepared them for me; but utter carelessness was visible in the first,
and the expression of brutality was strongly marked in the visage
of the second. Who could be interested in the fate of a murderer
Frankenstein |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Amazing Interlude by Mary Roberts Rinehart: should be no change of set for her. Sara Lee herself certainly expected
none.
But now and then amazing things are done on this great stage of ours:
lights go down; the back drop, which had given the illusion of solidity,
reveals itself transparent. A sort of fairyland transformation takes
place. Beyond the once solid wall strange figures move on - a new mise
en scene, with the old blotted out in darkness. The lady, whom we left
knitting by the fire, becomes a fairy - Sara Lee became a fairy, of a
sort - and meets the prince. Adventure, too; and love, of course. And
then the lights go out, and it is the same old back drop again, and the
lady is back by the fire - but with a memory.
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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 Heroes by Charles Kingsley: giant, taller than any mountain pine, who glittered aloft
against the sky like a tower of burnished brass. He turned
and looked on all sides round him, till he saw the ARGO and
her crew; and when he saw them he came toward them, more
swiftly than the swiftest horse, leaping across the glens at
a bound, and striding at one step from down to down. And
when he came abreast of them he brandished his arms up and
down, as a ship hoists and lowers her yards, and shouted with
his brazen throat like a trumpet from off the hills, 'You are
pirates, you are robbers! If you dare land here, you die.'
Then the heroes cried, 'We are no pirates. We are all good
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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 Market-Place by Harold Frederic: between themselves, they did not deem him quite good enough.
He had been wise enough, then, to have it out with the
girl--she was the one to whom he felt it easiest to talk
frankly--and had discovered, to his immense relief,
that they conceived him to be regarding them as encumbrances.
At breakfast next morning, with tactful geniality, he set
everything right, and thereafter they were all extremely
happy together.
So far as he could judge, they were very superior
young people, both intellectually and spiritually.
The girl spoke French, and her brother German,
The Market-Place |
