| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Mrs. Warren's Profession by George Bernard Shaw: room to commit suicide, or at least be turned out by their
protectors and passed on to be "redeemed" by old and faithful
lovers who have adored them in spite of their levities.
Naturally, the poorer girls in the gallery will believe in the
beauty, in the exquisite dresses, and the luxurious living, and
will see that there is no real necessity for the consumption, the
suicide, or the ejectment: mere pious forms, all of them, to save
the Censor's face. Even if these purely official catastrophes
carried any conviction, the majority of English girls remain so
poor, so dependent, so well aware that the drudgeries of such
honest work as is within their reach are likely enough to lead
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Tapestried Chamber by Walter Scott: hangings, which, with their worn-out graces, curtained the walls
of the little chamber, and gently undulated as the autumnal
breeze found its way through the ancient lattice window, which
pattered and whistled as the air gained entrance. The toilet,
too, with its mirror, turbaned after the manner of the beginning
of the century, with a coiffure of murrey-coloured silk, and its
hundred strange-shaped boxes, providing for arrangements which
had been obsolete for more than fifty years, had an antique, and
in so far a melancholy, aspect. But nothing could blaze more
brightly and cheerfully than the two large wax candles; or if
aught could rival them, it was the flaming, bickering fagots in
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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 Nada the Lily by H. Rider Haggard: my brothers--dogs of mine own house, whom I have fed? Do you slay me,
thinking to possess the land and to rule it? I tell you it shall not
be for long. I hear a sound of running feet--the feet of a great white
people. They shall stamp you flat, children of my father! They shall
rule the land that I have won, and you and your people shall be their
slaves!"
Thus Chaka spoke while the blood ran down him to the ground, and again
he looked on them royally, like a buck at gaze.
"Make an end, O ye who would be kings!" I cried; but their hearts had
turned to water and they could not. Then I, Mopo, sprang forward and
picked from the ground that little assegai handled with the royal wood
Nada the Lily |
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 O Pioneers! by Willa Cather: woman I've ever seen or heard of could."
Marie shook her head, pursing her lips and
blowing her warm breath softly out into the
frosty air. "No; I was spoiled at home. I like
my own way, and I have a quick tongue. When
Frank brags, I say sharp things, and he never
forgets. He goes over and over it in his mind;
I can feel him. Then I'm too giddy. Frank's
wife ought to be timid, and she ought not to
care about another living thing in the world but
O Pioneers! |
