| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Lesson of the Master by Henry James: upon which General Fancourt said: "Is that the hygiene? You don't
water the flowers?"
"Oh I should drown them!" St. George replied; but, leaving the room
still at his young friend's side, he added whimsically, for the
latter's benefit, in a lower tone: "My wife doesn't let me."
"Well I'm glad I'm not one of you fellows!" the General richly
concluded.
The nearness of Summersoft to London had this consequence, chilling
to a person who had had a vision of sociability in a railway-
carriage, that most of the company, after breakfast, drove back to
town, entering their own vehicles, which had come out to fetch
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Professor by Charlotte Bronte: at that hour, in the midst of silence and under the quiet reign
of moonlight, I ceased to think, that I might listen more
intently. The strain retreated, its sound waxed fainter and was
soon gone; my ear prepared to repose on the absolute hush of
midnight once more. No. What murmur was that which, low, and
yet near and approaching nearer, frustrated the expectation of
total silence? It was some one conversing--yes, evidently, an
audible, though subdued voice spoke in the garden immediately
below me. Another answered; the first voice was that of a man,
the second that of a woman; and a man and a woman I saw coming
slowly down the alley. Their forms were at first in shade, I
The Professor |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf: community with people into the presence of this formidable ancient
enemy of hers--this other thing, this truth, this reality, which
suddenly laid hands on her, emerged stark at the back of apperarances
and commanded reluctant. Why always be drawn out and haled away? Why
not left in peace, to talk to Mr Carmichael on the lawn? It was an
exacting form of intercourse anyhow. Other worshipful objects were
content with worship; men, women, God, all let one kneel prostrate; but
this form, were it only the shape of a white lamp-shade looming on a
wicker table, roused one to perpetual combat, challenged one to a fight
in which one was bound to be worsted. Always (it was in her nature, or
in her sex, she did not know which) before she exchanged the fluidity
To the Lighthouse |
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 Divine Comedy (translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) by Dante Alighieri: For one entwined itself about his neck
As if it said: "I will not thou speak more;"
And round his arms another, and rebound him,
Clinching itself together so in front,
That with them he could not a motion make.
Pistoia, ah, Pistoia! why resolve not
To burn thyself to ashes and so perish,
Since in ill-doing thou thy seed excellest?
Through all the sombre circles of this Hell,
Spirit I saw not against God so proud,
Not he who fell at Thebes down from the walls!
The Divine Comedy (translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) |
