| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Gambara by Honore de Balzac: this latter hypothesis; I would rather doubt your digestion than your
heart. Be this as it may, henceforth I drink no more wine--for ever.
The abuse of good liquor last evening led me into much guilty folly.
When I remember that I very nearly----" He gave a glance of terror at
Marianna. "As to the wretched opera you took me to hear, I have
thought it over, and it is, after all, music written on ordinary
lines, a mountain of piled-up notes, /verba et voces/. It is but the
dregs of the nectar I can drink in deep draughts as I reproduce the
heavenly music that I hear! It is a patchwork of airs of which I could
trace the origin. The passage '/Gloire a la Providence/' is too much
like a bit of Handel; the chorus of knights is closely related to the
Gambara |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Jolly Corner by Henry James: was nearer to him. "But I don't care," she smiled.
"You mean I'm good enough?"
She considered a little. "Will you believe it if I say so? I mean
will you let that settle your question for you?" And then as if
making out in his face that he drew back from this, that he had
some idea which, however absurd, he couldn't yet bargain away: "Oh
you don't care either - but very differently: you don't care for
anything but yourself."
Spencer Brydon recognised it - it was in fact what he had
absolutely professed. Yet he importantly qualified. "HE isn't
myself. He's the just so totally other person. But I do want to
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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 Jolly Corner by Henry James: with it, to hail it, on some pretext, from his fourth floor.
The pretext that wouldn't have been too silly or too compromising,
the explanation that would have saved his dignity and kept his
name, in such a case, out of the papers, was not definite to him:
he was so occupied with the thought of recording his Discretion -
as an effect of the vow he had just uttered to his intimate
adversary - that the importance of this loomed large and something
had overtaken all ironically his sense of proportion. If there had
been a ladder applied to the front of the house, even one of the
vertiginous perpendiculars employed by painters and roofers and
sometimes left standing overnight, he would have managed somehow,
|
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 Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde: I have to call for my husband at the club, to take him to some absurd meeting
at Willis's Rooms, where he is going to be in the chair. If I am late he is
sure to be furious, and I couldn't have a scene in this bonnet. It is far
too fragile. A harsh word would ruin it. No, I must go, dear Agatha.
Good-bye, Lord Henry, you are quite delightful and dreadfully demoralizing.
I am sure I don't know what to say about your views. You must come and dine
with us some night. Tuesday? Are you disengaged Tuesday?"
"For you I would throw over anybody, Duchess," said Lord Henry with a bow.
"Ah! that is very nice, and very wrong of you," she cried; "so mind you come";
and she swept out of the room, followed by Lady Agatha and the other ladies.
When Lord Henry had sat down again, Mr. Erskine moved round,
The Picture of Dorian Gray |
