| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Merry Men by Robert Louis Stevenson: Olalla's hand, and I picked it up with a sudden sinking of alarm,
and read, 'If you have any kindness for Olalla, if you have any
chivalry for a creature sorely wrought, go from here to-day; in
pity, in honour, for the sake of Him who died, I supplicate that
you shall go.' I looked at this awhile in mere stupidity, then I
began to awaken to a weariness and horror of life; the sunshine
darkened outside on the bare hills, and I began to shake like a man
in terror. The vacancy thus suddenly opened in my life unmanned me
like a physical void. It was not my heart, it was not my
happiness, it was life itself that was involved. I could not lose
her. I said so, and stood repeating it. And then, like one in a
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Oscar Wilde Miscellaneous by Oscar Wilde: lines as -
We will sup with the moon,
Like Persian princes that in Babylon
Sup in the hanging gardens of the King.
In a stylistic sense Mr. Sturge Moore has accomplished a feat in
reconstruction, whatever opinions may be held of A Florentine
Tragedy by Wilde's admirers or detractors. The achievement is
particularly remarkable because Mr. Sturge Moore has nothing in
common with Wilde other than what is shared by all real poets and
dramatists: He is a landed proprietor on Parnassus, not a
trespasser. In England we are more familiar with the poachers.
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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 Madam How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley: soft mud; as you will know when you read that great book of Sir
Roderick Murchison's, Siluria. But as the ages rolled on, they
got fewer and fewer, these Terebratulae; and now there are hardly
any of them left; only six or seven sorts are left about these
islands, which cling to stones in deep water; and the first time I
dredged two of them out of Loch Fyne, I looked at them with awe,
as on relics from another world, which had lasted on through
unnumbered ages and changes, such as one's fancy could not grasp.
But you will agree that, if Master Analysis took that shell to
pieces, Master Synthesis would not be likely to put it together
again; much less to put it together in the right way, in which
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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 Glasses by Henry James: another pair of goggles was what would have been prescribed to
Flora.
"I see--I see," I presently returned. "What would become of Lord
Iffield if she were suddenly to come out in them? What indeed
would become of every one, what would become of everything?" This
was an enquiry that Dawling was evidently unprepared to meet, and I
completed it by saying at last: "My dear fellow, for that matter,
what would become of YOU?"
Once more he turned on me his good green eyes. "Oh I shouldn't
mind!"
The tone of his words somehow made his ugly face beautiful, and I
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