| 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: statues to him and exalts him above Charlemagne and Henry the
Fowler. And when he meets a man of genius, he instinctively
insults him, starves him, and, if possible, imprisons and kills
him.
Now I do not pretend to be perfect myself. Heaven knows I have to
struggle hard enough every day with what the Germans call my
higher impulses. I know too well the temptation to be moral, to
be self-sacrificing, to be loyal and patriotic, to be respectable
and well-spoken of. But I wrestle with it and--as far as human
fraility will allow--conquer it, whereas the German abandons
himself to it without scruple or reflection, and is actually
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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 Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie: "Yes, but I don't see----"
"No, but I saw. Do you know, my friend, I remembered that
earlier in the morning, when we had been there together, I had
straightened all the objects on the mantel-piece. And, if they
were already straightened, there would be no need to straighten
them again, unless, in the meantime, some one else had touched
them."
"Dear me," I murmured, "so that is the explanation of your
extraordinary behaviour. You rushed down to Styles, and found it
still there?"
"Yes, and it was a race for time."
The Mysterious Affair at Styles |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Poems by T. S. Eliot: The Hippopotamus
Dans le Restaurant
Whispers of Immortality
Mr. Eliot's Sunday Morning Service
Sweeney Among the Nightingales
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
Portrait of a Lady
Preludes
Rhapsody on a Windy Night
Morning at the Window
The Boston Evening Transcript
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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 Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories by Alice Dunbar: doubtless forgetting the little sister they pitied; but the
little sister?
The days glided into weeks, the weeks into months. Thoughts of
escape had come to Sister Josepha, to flee into the world, to
merge in the great city where recognition was impossible, and,
working her way like the rest of humanity, perchance encounter
the eyes again.
It was all planned and ready. She would wait until some morning
when the little band of black-robed sisters wended their way to
mass at the Cathedral. When it was time to file out the
side-door into the courtway, she would linger at prayers, then
The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories |
