| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith: every quarter. If you find their reason manageable, you attack it with
your philosophy; if you find they have no reason, you attack them with
this. Here's your health, my philosopher. [Drinks.]
HARDCASTLE. Good, very good, thank you; ha! ha! Your generalship puts
me in mind of Prince Eugene, when he fought the Turks at the battle of
Belgrade. You shall hear.
MARLOW. Instead of the battle of Belgrade, I believe it's almost time
to talk about supper. What has your philosophy got in the house for
supper?
HARDCASTLE. For supper, sir! (Aside.) Was ever such a request to a
man in his own house?
She Stoops to Conquer |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Children of the Night by Edwin Arlington Robinson: What does it mean, this barren age of ours?
Here are the men, the women, and the flowers,
The seasons, and the sunset, as before.
What does it mean? Shall not one bard arise
To wrench one banner from the western skies,
And mark it with his name forevermore?
George Crabbe
Give him the darkest inch your shelf allows,
Hide him in lonely garrets, if you will, --
But his hard, human pulse is throbbing still
With the sure strength that fearless truth endows.
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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 Captain Stormfield by Mark Twain: my own gate - and hark ye, that is quite enough knowledge for one
individual to try to pack into his head in the thirty-seven
millions of years I have devoted night and day to that study. But
the idea of learning the customs of the whole appalling expanse of
heaven - O man, how insanely you talk! Now I don't doubt that this
odd costume you talk about is the fashion in that district of
heaven you belong to, but you won't be conspicuous in this section
without it."
I felt all right, if that was the case, so I bade him good-day and
left. All day I walked towards the far end of a prodigious hall of
the office, hoping to come out into heaven any moment, but it was a
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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 Royalty Restored/London Under Charles II by J. Fitzgerald Molloy: It came to pass that Lady Gerrard, who loved the queen, requested
the honour of their majesties to sup with her. She, moreover,
invited some of the courtiers, amongst whom she did not include
my Lady Castlemaine. On the appointed night the king and queen
duly arrived; the other guests had already assembled; and the
hour gave fair promise of entertainment. But presently, when
supper was announced, his majesty was missing, and on inquiry it
was discovered he had left the house for Lady Castlemaine's
lodgings, where he spent the evening. Such an insult as this so
openly dealt the queen, and such an indignity put upon the
hostess, caused the greatest agitation to all present; and
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