| 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: is first pointedly uttered by the orchestra. The sword theme is
introduced at the end of The Rhine Gold to express Wotan's hero
inspiration; and I have already mentioned that Wagner, unable,
when it came to practical stage management, to forego the appeal
to the eye as well as to the thought, here made Wotan pick up a
sword and brandish it, though no such instruction appears in the
printed score. When this sacrifice to Wagner's scepticism as to
the reality of any appeal to an audience that is not made through
their bodily sense is omitted, the association of the theme with
the sword is not formed until that point in the first act of The
Valkyries at which Siegmund is left alone by Hunding's hearth,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Critias by Plato: they had as common property; nor did they claim to receive of the other
citizens anything more than their necessary food. And they practised all
the pursuits which we yesterday described as those of our imaginary
guardians. Concerning the country the Egyptian priests said what is not
only probable but manifestly true, that the boundaries were in those days
fixed by the Isthmus, and that in the direction of the continent they
extended as far as the heights of Cithaeron and Parnes; the boundary line
came down in the direction of the sea, having the district of Oropus on the
right, and with the river Asopus as the limit on the left. The land was
the best in the world, and was therefore able in those days to support a
vast army, raised from the surrounding people. Even the remnant of Attica
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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 The Pupil by Henry James: she became still more gracious to reply: "Oh I can assure you that
all that will be quite regular."
Pemberton only wondered, while he took up his hat, what "all that"
was to amount to - people had such different ideas. Mrs. Moreen's
words, however, seemed to commit the family to a pledge definite
enough to elicit from the child a strange little comment in the
shape of the mocking foreign ejaculation "Oh la-la!"
Pemberton, in some confusion, glanced at him as he walked slowly to
the window with his back turned, his hands in his pockets and the
air in his elderly shoulders of a boy who didn't play. The young
man wondered if he should be able to teach him to play, though his
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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 Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas: "Then you profess ignorance of the crime with which you are
charged?"
"I do, indeed; and this I swear by the two beings most dear
to me upon earth, -- my father and Mercedes."
"Come," said the abbe, closing his hiding-place, and pushing
the bed back to its original situation, "let me hear your
story."
Dantes obeyed, and commenced what he called his history, but
which consisted only of the account of a voyage to India,
and two or three voyages to the Levant until he arrived at
the recital of his last cruise, with the death of Captain
The Count of Monte Cristo |
