| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Salome by Oscar Wilde: UN ESCLAVE
NAAMAN, le bourreau
HERODIAS, femme du Tetrarque
SALOME, fille d'Herodias
LES ESCLAVES DE SALOME
SCENE
[Une grande terrasse dans le palais d'Herode donnant sur la salle de
festin. Des soldats sont accoudes sur le balcon. A droite il y a
un enorme escalier. A gauche, au fond, une ancienne citerne
entouree d'un mur de bronze vert. Clair de lune.]
LE JEUNE SYRIEN. Comme la princesse Salome est belle ce soir!
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Child of Storm by H. Rider Haggard: that, after the third regiment had attacked them and broken up their
ring, a small body of them, from eighty to a hundred only, managed to
cut a way through and escape, running, not towards the Tugela, where so
many thousands had perished, but up to Nodwengu, where they reported
themselves to Panda as the only survivors of the Amawombe.
"And are you safe now?" I asked of the captain.
"Oh, yes," he answered. "You see, we were the King's men, not
Umbelazi's, so Cetewayo bears us no grudge. Indeed, he is obliged to
us, because we gave the Usutu their stomachs full of good fighting,
which is more than did those cows of Umbelazi's. It is towards Saduko
that he bears a grudge, for you know, my father, one should never pull a
Child of Storm |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Summer by Edith Wharton: them toward her. "Do you want a stamp too?" he asked.
She nodded, and he gave her the stamp. As he did so
she felt that he was looking at her intently, and she
knew that the candle light flickering up on her white
face must be distorting her swollen features and
exaggerating the dark rings about her eyes. She
snatched up the paper, her reassurance dissolving under
his pitiless gaze, in which she seemed to read the grim
perception of her state, and the ironic recollection of
the day when, in that very room, he had offered to
compel Harney to marry her. His look seemed to say
|
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 Pagan and Christian Creeds by Edward Carpenter: were happening all round them in the external world were
also happening within themselves. They saw the Sun,
overclouded and nigh to death in winter, come to its birth
again each year; they saw the Vegetation shoot forth
anew in spring--the revival of the spirit of the Earth;
the endless breeding of the Animals, the strange
transformations of Worms and Insects; the obviously new life
taken on by boys and girls at puberty; the same at a later
age when the novice was transformed into the medicine-
man--the choupan into the angakok among the Esquimaux,
the Dacotah youth into the wakan among the Red
Pagan and Christian Creeds |
