| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Silas Marner by George Eliot: nor own anybody nearer than him. And I don't want to be a lady--
thank you all the same" (here Eppie dropped another curtsy). "I
couldn't give up the folks I've been used to."
Eppie's lips began to tremble a little at the last words. She
retreated to her father's chair again, and held him round the neck:
while Silas, with a subdued sob, put up his hand to grasp hers.
The tears were in Nancy's eyes, but her sympathy with Eppie was,
naturally, divided with distress on her husband's account. She
dared not speak, wondering what was going on in her husband's mind.
Godfrey felt an irritation inevitable to almost all of us when we
encounter an unexpected obstacle. He had been full of his own
Silas Marner |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Concerning Christian Liberty by Martin Luther: righteousness, and salvation. Thus He betrothes her unto Himself
"in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in judgment, and in
lovingkindness, and in mercies" (Hosea ii. 19, 20).
Who then can value highly enough these royal nuptials? Who can
comprehend the riches of the glory of this grace? Christ, that
rich and pious Husband, takes as a wife a needy and impious
harlot, redeeming her from all her evils and supplying her with
all His good things. It is impossible now that her sins should
destroy her, since they have been laid upon Christ and swallowed
up in Him, and since she has in her Husband Christ a
righteousness which she may claim as her own, and which she can
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Dark Lady of the Sonnets by George Bernard Shaw: thrown into despair by a comparison of actual human nature with
theoretical morality, actual law and administration with abstract
justice, and so forth. But Shakespear's perception of the fact that
all men, judged by the moral standard which they apply to others and
by which they justify their punishment of others, are fools and
scoundrels, does not date from the Dark Lady complication: he seems
to have been born with it. If in The Comedy of Errors and A Midsummer
Night's Dream the persons of the drama are not quite so ready for
treachery and murder as Laertes and even Hamlet himself (not to
mention the procession of ruffians who pass through the latest plays)
it is certainly not because they have any more regard for law or
|
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 She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith: help. Oh, Tony! is that you? I did not expect you so soon back. Are
your mother and her charge in safety?
TONY. Very safe, sir, at my aunt Pedigree's. Hem.
MRS. HARDCASTLE. (From behind.) Ah, death! I find there's danger.
HARDCASTLE. Forty miles in three hours; sure that's too much, my
youngster.
TONY. Stout horses and willing minds make short journeys, as they say.
Hem.
MRS. HARDCASTLE. (From behind.) Sure he'll do the dear boy no harm.
HARDCASTLE. But I heard a voice here; I should be glad to know from
whence it came.
She Stoops to Conquer |
