| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith: Observe their little sports. They fall in and out ten times a day, as
if they were man and wife already. (To them.) Well, Tony, child, what
soft things are you saying to your cousin Constance this evening?
TONY. I have been saying no soft things; but that it's very hard to be
followed about so. Ecod! I've not a place in the house now that's left
to myself, but the stable.
MRS. HARDCASTLE. Never mind him, Con, my dear. He's in another story
behind your back.
MISS NEVILLE. There's something generous in my cousin's manner. He
falls out before faces to be forgiven in private.
TONY. That's a damned confounded--crack.
She Stoops to Conquer |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Common Sense by Thomas Paine: and in that case we pay our money for nothing; and pray what is it that
Britain can do, whose power will he wholly on paper. should a civil
tumult break out the very day after reconciliation! I have heard
some men say, many of whom I believe spoke without thinking, that they
dreaded an independence, fearing that it would produce civil wars.
It is but seldom that our first thoughts are truly correct, and that
is the case here; for there are ten times more to dread from a patched up
connection than from independence. I make the sufferers case my own,
and I protest, that were I driven from house and home, my property destroyed,
and my circumstances ruined, that as man, sensible of injuries, I could never
relish the doctrine of reconciliation, or consider myself bound thereby.
Common Sense |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Allan Quatermain by H. Rider Haggard: ghostly vapours and awaking the mountains with a kiss, as they
flew from range to range and longitude to longitude. Another
moment, and the golden gates were open and the sun himself came
forth as a bridegroom from his chamber, with pomp and glory and
a flashing as of ten million spears, and embraced the night and
covered her with brightness, and it was day.
But as yet I could see nothing save the beautiful blue sky above,
for over the water was a thick layer of mist exactly as though
the whole surface had been covered with billows of cotton wool.
By degrees, however, the sun sucked up the mists, and then I
saw that we were afloat upon a glorious sheet of blue water of
Allan Quatermain |
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 Lone Star Ranger by Zane Grey: talkie' that way."
Thereafter they conversed in too low a tone for Duane to hear,
and presently Laramie's visitor left. Duane went inside, and,
making himself agreeable, began to ask casual questions about
Fairdale. Laramie was not communicative.
Duane went to his room in a thoughtful frame of mind. Had
Laramie's visitor meant he hoped some one had come to kill
Longstreth? Duane inferred just that from the interrupted
remark. There was something wrong about the Mayor of Fairdale.
Duane felt it. And he felt also, if there was a crooked and
dangerous man, it was this Floyd Lawson. The innkeeper Laramie
The Lone Star Ranger |
