| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Maid Marian by Thomas Love Peacock: "They say, sir knight," said Friar Tuck, "they should laugh who win:
but thou laughest who art likely to lose."
"I have won," said the knight, "a good dinner, some mirth,
and some knowledge: and I cannot lose by paying for them."
"Bravely said," answered Robin. "Still it becomes thee to pay:
for it is not meet that a poor forester should treat a rich knight.
How much money hast thou with thee?"
"Troth, I know not," said the knight. "Sometimes much, sometimes little,
sometimes none. But search, and what thou findest, keep:
and for the sake of thy kind heart and open hand, be it what it may,
I shall wish it were more."
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Dracula by Bram Stoker: Working together and with absolute trust, we can surely be stronger
than if some of us were in the dark."
She looked at me so appealingly, and at the same time manifested
such courage and resolution in her bearing, that I gave in at once
to her wishes. "You shall," I said, "do as you like in the matter.
God forgive me if I do wrong! There are terrible things yet to learn of.
But if you have so far traveled on the road to poor Lucy's death,
you will not be content, I know, to remain in the dark. Nay, the end,
the very end, may give you a gleam of peace. Come, there is dinner.
We must keep one another strong for what is before us. We have a cruel
and dreadful task. When you have eaten you shall learn the rest,
Dracula |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche: we Germans are as yet nearer to barbarism than the French;--
perhaps even the most remarkable creation of Richard Wagner is
not only at present, but for ever inaccessible, incomprehensible,
and inimitable to the whole latter-day Latin race: the figure of
Siegfried, that VERY FREE man, who is probably far too free, too
hard, too cheerful, too healthy, too ANTI-CATHOLIC for the taste
of old and mellow civilized nations. He may even have been a sin
against Romanticism, this anti-Latin Siegfried: well, Wagner
atoned amply for this sin in his old sad days, when--anticipating
a taste which has meanwhile passed into politics--he began, with
the religious vehemence peculiar to him, to preach, at least, THE
Beyond Good and Evil |
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 Great God Pan by Arthur Machen: wreck of a man with grief and dismay, mingled with a certain
inquisitiveness as to what dreary chain of circumstances had
dragged him down to such a doleful pass. Villiers felt together
with compassion all the relish of the amateur in mysteries, and
congratulated himself on his leisurely speculations outside the
restaurant.
They walked on in silence for some time, and more than
one passer-by stared in astonishment at the unaccustomed
spectacle of a well-dressed man with an unmistakable beggar
hanging on to his arm, and, observing this, Villiers led the way
to an obscure street in Soho. Here he repeated his question.
The Great God Pan |
