| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring by George Bernard Shaw: son's son to his goal.
Now it is an excellent thing to triumph in the victory of the new
order and the passing away of the old; but if you happen to be
part of the old order yourself, you must none the less fight for
your life. It seems hardly possible that the British army at the
battle of Waterloo did not include at least one Englishman
intelligent enough to hope, for the sake of his country and
humanity, that Napoleon might defeat the allied sovereigns; but
such an Englishman would kill a French cuirassier rather than be
killed by him just as energetically as the silliest soldier, ever
encouraged by people who ought to know better, to call his
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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 Travels of Sir John Mandeville by Sir John Mandeville: part of his lands and of his lordships; for he was wont to be
Emperor of Roumania and of Greece, of all Asia the less, and of the
land of Syria, of the land of Judea in the which is Jerusalem, and
of the land of Egypt, of Persia, and of Arabia. But he hath lost
all but Greece; and that land he holds all only. And men would
many times put the apple into the image's hand again, but it will
not hold it. This apple betokeneth the lordship that he had over
all the world, that is round. And the tother hand he lifteth up
against the East, in token to menace the misdoers. This image
stands upon a pillar of marble at Constantinople.
CHAPTER II
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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 King James Bible: shall be chased away as a vision of the night.
JOB 20:9 The eye also which saw him shall see him no more; neither
shall his place any more behold him.
JOB 20:10 His children shall seek to please the poor, and his hands
shall restore their goods.
JOB 20:11 His bones are full of the sin of his youth, which shall lie
down with him in the dust.
JOB 20:12 Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it
under his tongue;
JOB 20:13 Though he spare it, and forsake it not; but keep it still
within his mouth:
King James Bible |
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 Les Miserables by Victor Hugo: talked to her of years gone by, of her childhood, of the convent,
of her little friends of those bygone days.
One afternoon,--it was on one of those early days in April,
already warm and fresh, the moment of the sun's great gayety,
the gardens which surrounded the windows of Marius and Cosette felt
the emotion of waking, the hawthorn was on the point of budding,
a jewelled garniture of gillyflowers spread over the ancient walls,
snapdragons yawned through the crevices of the stones, amid the
grass there was a charming beginning of daisies, and buttercups,
the white butterflies of the year were making their first appearance,
the wind, that minstrel of the eternal wedding, was trying in the trees
Les Miserables |
