| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Lesson of the Master by Henry James: "I'm nothing yet, I've no fortune; and there must be so many
others," his companion pursued.
The Master took this considerably in, but made little of it.
"You're a gentleman and a man of genius. I think you might do
something."
"But if I must give that up - the genius?"
"Lots of people, you know, think I've kept mine," St. George
wonderfully grinned.
"You've a genius for mystification!" Paul declared; but grasping
his hand gratefully in attenuation of this judgement.
"Poor dear boy, I do worry you! But try, try, all the same. I
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Dark Lady of the Sonnets by George Bernard Shaw: not strongly stirred. If this be taken into account along with the
fact that Shakespear conceived and expressed all his emotions with a
vehemence that sometimes carried him into ludicrous extravagance,
making Richard offer his kingdom for a horse and Othello declare of
Cassio that
Had all his hairs been lives, my great revenge
Had stomach for them all,
we shall see more civility and hyperbole than sycophancy even in the
earlier and more coldblooded sonnets.
Shakespear and Democracy
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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 Idylls of the King by Alfred Tennyson: Our hoard is little, but our hearts are great.'
He spake: the Prince, as Enid past him, fain
To follow, strode a stride, but Yniol caught
His purple scarf, and held, and said, 'Forbear!
Rest! the good house, though ruined, O my son,
Endures not that her guest should serve himself.'
And reverencing the custom of the house
Geraint, from utter courtesy, forbore.
So Enid took his charger to the stall;
And after went her way across the bridge,
And reached the town, and while the Prince and Earl
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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 Gambara by Honore de Balzac: herself with the rapture of the woman in the Roman mosaic who embraces
a chimera; yet a third is thinking that this very evening some hoped-
for joy is to be hers, and rushes by anticipation into the tide of
happiness, its dashing waves breaking against her burning bosom. Music
alone has this power of throwing us back on ourselves; the other arts
give us infinite pleasure. But I am digressing.
"These were my first ideas, vague indeed; for an inventor at the
beginning only catches glimpses of the dawn, as it were. So I kept
these glorious ideas at the bottom of my knapsack, and they gave me
spirit to eat the dry crust I often dipped in the water of a spring. I
worked, I composed airs, and, after playing them on any instrument
Gambara |
