| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring by George Bernard Shaw: unborn in her womb, and the broken pieces of his sword in her
hand, finds shelter in the smithy of a dwarf, where she brings
forth her child and dies. This dwarf is no other than Mimmy, the
brother of Alberic, the same who made for him the magic helmet.
His aim in life is to gain possession of the helmet, the ring,
and the treasure, and through them to obtain that Plutonic
mastery of the world under the beginnings of which he himself
writhed during Alberic's brief reign. Mimmy is a blinking,
shambling, ancient creature, too weak and timid to dream of
taking arms himself to despoil Fafnir, who still, transformed to
a monstrous serpent, broods on the gold in a hole in the rocks.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Pupil by Henry James: was wrong, for she had fifty francs in her hand. She squeezed
forward in her dressing-gown, and he received her in his own,
between his bath-tub and his bed. He had been tolerably schooled
by this time to the "foreign ways" of his hosts. Mrs. Moreen was
ardent, and when she was ardent she didn't care what she did; so
she now sat down on his bed, his clothes being on the chairs, and,
in her preoccupation, forgot, as she glanced round, to be ashamed
of giving him such a horrid room. What Mrs. Moreen's ardour now
bore upon was the design of persuading him that in the first place
she was very good-natured to bring him fifty francs, and that in
the second, if he would only see it, he was really too absurd to
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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 Pathology of Lying, Etc. by William and Mary Healy: cases as this where the individual is unquestionably aberrational
and yet does not conform in mental symptoms to any one of the
definitive ``forms of insanity.'' They may be lacking in normal
social control and in ability to reason, impulsively inclined to
anti-social deeds and therefore social menaces, but,
notwithstanding this, may not be classified under the head of any
of the ordinary text-book types of mental diseases.
It is clear that for the protection of society a different notion
of what constitutes mental aberration or insanity should prevail,
so that these unusually dangerous types might be permanently
segregated. It would really seem that just the findings which
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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 The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie: "Oh," she shrugged her shoulders, "if it is only village gossip
that you mind!"
"But it isn't. I've had enough of the fellow hanging about.
He's a Polish Jew, anyway."
"A tinge of Jewish blood is not a bad thing. It leavens
the"--she looked at him--"stolid stupidity of the ordinary
Englishman."
Fire in her eyes, ice in her voice. I did not wonder that the
blood rose to John's face in a crimson tide.
"Mary!"
"Well?" Her tone did not change.
The Mysterious Affair at Styles |
