| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from To-morrow by Joseph Conrad: silence of the stony country a voice spoke above her
head, high up in the black air--the voice of mad-
ness, lies and despair--the voice of inextinguish-
able hope. "Is he gone yet--that information
fellow? Do you hear him about, my dear?"
She burst into tears. "No! no! no! I don't
hear him any more," she sobbed.
He began to chuckle up there triumphantly.
"You frightened him away. Good girl. Now we
shall be all right. Don't you be impatient, my dear.
One day more."
To-morrow |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Intentions by Oscar Wilde: And deerskin-vested satyrs, crowned with ivy twists, advance;
And put strange pity in their horned countenance.
Laelaps lies beneath, and shows by his panting the rapid pace of
death. On the other side of the group, Virtuous Love with 'vans
dejected' holds forth the arrow to an approaching troop of sylvan
people, fauns, rams, goats, satyrs, and satyr-mothers, pressing
their children tighter with their fearful hands, who hurry along
from the left in a sunken path between the foreground and a rocky
wall, on whose lowest ridge a brook-guardian pours from her urn her
grief-telling waters. Above and more remote than the Ephidryad,
another female, rending her locks, appears among the vine-festooned
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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 Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring by George Bernard Shaw: railway shunting yard, or a tailoring shop, or a little
gin-sodden laundry, or a bakehouse, or a big shop, or any other
of the places where human life and welfare are daily sacrificed
in order that some greedy foolish creature may be able to hymn
exultantly to his Platonic idol:
Thou mak'st me eat whilst others starve,
And sing while others do lament:
Such untome Thy blessings are,
As if I were Thine only care.
In the mine, which resounds with the clinking anvils of the
dwarfs toiling miserably to heap up treasure for their master,
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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 King James Bible: law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and whatsoever thou hast in the
city, bring them out of this place:
GEN 19:13 For we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is
waxen great before the face of the LORD; and the LORD hath sent us to
destroy it.
GEN 19:14 And Lot went out, and spake unto his sons in law, which
married his daughters, and said, Up, get you out of this place; for the
LORD will destroy this city. But he seemed as one that mocked unto his
sons in law.
GEN 19:15 And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot,
saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here;
King James Bible |
