| 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: shall be tolerated on the stage only when they are beautiful,
exquisitely dressed, and sumptuously lodged and fed; also that
they shall, at the end of the play, die of consumption to the
sympathetic tears of the whole audience, or step into the next
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
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Prince Otto by Robert Louis Stevenson: will condescend to tell you why. I go to the palace to arrange with
Gordon; but how is Gordon to obey me? And how can I foresee the
hours? It may be midnight; ay, and it may be nightfall; all's a
chance; and to act, I must be free and hold the strings of the
adventure. And now,' she cried, 'your Vivien goes. Dub me your
knight!' And she held out her arms and smiled upon him radiant.
'Well,' he said, when he had kissed her, 'every man must have his
folly; I thank God mine is no worse. Off with you! I have given a
child a squib.'
CHAPTER XII - PROVIDENCE VON ROSEN: ACT THE SECOND
SHE INFORMS THE PRINCE
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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 Agesilaus by Xenophon: emancipation of Messene.[37] But when the man who had summoned him
refused to confer the proffered generalship, Agesilaus, like one on
whom a flagrant deception has been practised, began to consider the
part he had to play. Meanwhile a separate division[38] of the Egyptian
armies held aloof from their king. Then, the disaffection spreading,
all the rest of his troops deserted him; whereat the monarch took
flight and retired in exile to Sidon in Phoenicia, leaving the
Egyptians, split in faction, to choose to themselves a pair of
kings.[39] Thereupon Agesilaus took his decision. If he helped
neither, it meant that neither would pay the service-money due to his
Hellenes, that neither would provide a market, and that, whichever of
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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 Lair of the White Worm by Bram Stoker: again noiselessly, and waited for a more favourable opportunity of
furthering his plans. It must be borne in mind that he thought that
the heavy trunk was full of valuables, and that he believed that
Lady Arabella had come to try to steal it. His purpose of using for
his own advantage the combination of these two ideas was seen later
in the day. Oolanga secretly followed her home. He was an expert
at this game, and succeeded admirably on this occasion. He watched
her enter the private gate of Diana's Grove, and then, taking a
roundabout course and keeping out of her sight, he at last overtook
her in a thick part of the Grove where no one could see the meeting.
Lady Arabella was much surprised. She had not seen the negro for
Lair of the White Worm |
