| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lysis by Plato: there can be no doubt of it: Friendship is the love which by reason of the
presence of evil the neither good nor evil has of the good, either in the
soul, or in the body, or anywhere.
They both agreed and entirely assented, and for a moment I rejoiced and was
satisfied like a huntsman just holding fast his prey. But then a most
unaccountable suspicion came across me, and I felt that the conclusion was
untrue. I was pained, and said, Alas! Lysis and Menexenus, I am afraid
that we have been grasping at a shadow only.
Why do you say so? said Menexenus.
I am afraid, I said, that the argument about friendship is false:
arguments, like men, are often pretenders.
Lysis |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Confidence by Henry James: of his friend's vanity. In fact, however, it may be confided
to the reader that Bernard was pricked in a tender place,
though the resentment of vanity was not visible in his answer.
"You were quite wrong," he simply said. "I am as ignorant
of women as a monk in his cloister."
"You try to prove too much. You don't think her sympathetic!"
And as regards this last remark, Gordon Wright must be credited
with a certain ironical impulse.
Bernard stopped impatiently.
"I ask you again, what does it matter to you what I think of her?"
"It matters in this sense--that she has refused me."
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Brother of Daphne by Dornford Yates: After a lengthy argument, in the course of which Berry drew a
stage on the table-cloth to show why it was I couldn't act;
"Oh, well, I suppose he'd better play it," said Daphne: "but I
scent trouble."
"That's right," I said. "Let me have a copy of the play."
Berry rose and walked towards the door. With his fingers on the
handle, he turned.
"If you don't know what some of the hard words mean," he said, "I
shall be in the library."
"Why in the library?" said Daphne.
"I'm going to write in another scene."
The Brother of Daphne |
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 Long Odds by H. Rider Haggard: inclination to kick out of its own mere motion--just as hysterical
people want to laugh when they ought to be particularly solemn. Well,
the lion sniffed and sniffed, beginning at my ankle and slowly nosing
away up to my thigh. I thought that he was going to get hold then, but
he did not. He only growled softly, and went back to the ox. Shifting
my head a little I got a full view of him. He was about the biggest
lion I ever saw, and I have seen a great many, and he had a most
tremendous black mane. What his teeth were like you can see--look
there, pretty big ones, ain't they? Altogether he was a magnificent
animal, and as I lay sprawling on the fore-tongue of the waggon, it
occurred to me that he would look uncommonly well in a cage. He stood
Long Odds |
