| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Macbeth by William Shakespeare: Will laugh a Siedge to scorne: Heere let them lye,
Till Famine and the Ague eate them vp:
Were they not forc'd with those that should be ours,
We might haue met them darefull, beard to beard,
And beate them backward home. What is that noyse?
A Cry within of Women.
Sey. It is the cry of women, my good Lord
Macb. I haue almost forgot the taste of Feares:
The time ha's beene, my sences would haue cool'd
To heare a Night-shrieke, and my Fell of haire
Would at a dismall Treatise rowze, and stirre
Macbeth |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland by Olive Schreiner: came to him weeping; and she said, 'Did you see how some of the most
wealthy and important people got up and went out this morning? Why did you
preach such a sermon, when we were just going to have the new wing added to
our house, and you thought they were going to raise your salary? You have
not a single Boer in your congregation! Why need you say the Chartered
Company raid on Johannesburg was wrong?'
"He said, 'My wife, if I believe that certain men whom we have raised on
high, and to whom we have given power, have done a cowardly wrong, shall I
not say it?'
"And she said, 'Yes, and only a little while ago, when Rhodes was licking
the dust off the Boers' feet that he might keep them from suspecting while
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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 Dracula by Bram Stoker: when sleep is not, `It was my hand that sent her to the stars.
It was the hand of him that loved her best, the hand that of all
she would herself have chosen, had it been to her to choose?'
Tell me if there be such a one amongst us?"
We all looked at Arthur. He saw too, what we all did,
the infinite kindness which suggested that his should be
the hand which would restore Lucy to us as a holy, and not
an unholy, memory. He stepped forward and said bravely,
though his hand trembled, and his face was as pale as snow,
"My true friend, from the bottom of my broken heart I thank you.
Tell me what I am to do, and I shall not falter!"
Dracula |
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 Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield: "Do you?" said Anne. "Oh, I do hope you do. Because I feel so horrid
about it. It's so hard to explain. You know I've never--" She stopped.
Reggie looked at her. She was smiling. "Isn't it funny?" she said. "I
can say anything to you. I always have been able to from the very
beginning."
He tried to smile, to say "I'm glad." She went on. "I've never known any
one I like as much as I like you. I've never felt so happy with any one.
But I'm sure it's not what people and what books mean when they talk about
love. Do you understand? Oh, if you only knew how horrid I feel. But
we'd be like...like Mr. and Mrs. Dove."
That did it. That seemed to Reginald final, and so terribly true that he
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