| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Hamlet by William Shakespeare: And who in want a hollow Friend doth try,
Directly seasons him his Enemie.
But orderly to end, where I begun,
Our Willes and Fates do so contrary run,
That our Deuices still are ouerthrowne,
Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our owne.
So thinke thou wilt no second Husband wed.
But die thy thoughts, when thy first Lord is dead
Bap. Nor Earth to giue me food, nor Heauen light,
Sport and repose locke from me day and night:
Each opposite that blankes the face of ioy,
Hamlet |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Poor and Proud by Oliver Optic: drying her tears. "I know it is wicked for me to repine."
Katy read the whole psalm, and followed it with others, which
produced a healing influence upon her mother's mind, and she
seemed to forget that the purse was empty, and that they had
placed themselves under obligations to a servant.
The sufferer rested much better than usual that night, and Katy
was permitted to sleep the greater part of the time--a boon which
her exhausted frame very much needed. About ten o'clock in the
forenoon, Michael paid her a visit, to inform her that Mrs.
Gordon had just arrived: and that, when he mentioned her case,
she had sent him down to request her immediate attendance and
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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 Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad: made me uneasy. There was no sign on the face of nature
of this amazing tale that was not so much told as suggested
to me in desolate exclamations, completed by shrugs,
in interrupted phrases, in hints ending in deep sighs.
The woods were unmoved, like a mask--heavy, like the closed door
of a prison--they looked with their air of hidden knowledge,
of patient expectation, of unapproachable silence.
The Russian was explaining to me that it was only lately
that Mr. Kurtz had come down to the river, bringing along
with him all the fighting men of that lake tribe. He had been
absent for several months--getting himself adored, I suppose--
Heart of Darkness |
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 Dark Lady of the Sonnets by George Bernard Shaw: Will make me sleep again; and then, in dreaming,
The clouds, methought, would open and shew riches
Ready to drop on me: that when I wak'd
I cried to dream again.
which is very lovely; but the Dark Lady may have had that vice in her
ears which Cloten dreaded: she may not have seen the beauty of it,
whereas there can be no doubt at all that of "My mistress' eyes are
nothing like the sun," &c., not a word was lost on her.
And is it to be supposed that Shakespear was too stupid or too modest
not to see at last that it was a case of Jupiter and Semele?
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