| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Herodias by Gustave Flaubert: father depended, in a way, on the corrupt influence of the son; and
through him it was possible that Antipas might be able to procure for
the proconsul very substantial benefits, although the glances that he
cast about him were defiant, and even venomous.
But now a new tumult arose just within the gates. A file of white
mules entered the courtyard, mounted by men in priestly garb. These
were the Sadducees and the Pharisees, who were drawn to Machaerus by
the same ambition: the one party hoping to be appointed public
sacrificers, the other determined to retain those offices. Their faces
were dark, particularly those of the Pharisees, who were enemies of
Rome and of the tetrarch. The flowing skirts of their tunics
Herodias |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The New Machiavelli by H. G. Wells: in Dayton's snarl of "Leave it alone; leave it all alone!" Marriage
and the begetting and care of children, is the very ground substance
in the life of the community. In a world in which everything
changes, in which fresh methods, fresh adjustments and fresh ideas
perpetually renew the circumstances of life, it is preposterous that
we should not even examine into these matters, should rest content
to be ruled by the uncriticised traditions of a barbaric age.
Now, it seems to me that the solution of this problem is also the
solution of the woman's individual problem. The two go together,
are right and left of one question. The only conceivable way out
from our IMPASSE lies in the recognition of parentage, that is 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 Essays of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: expression, he said timidly that there seemed to be a GREAT DEAL OF
MEETING THEREABOUTS. The phrase is significant. It is the
expression of town-life in the language of the long, solitary country
highways. A meeting of one with one was what this man had been used
to in the pastoral uplands from which he came; and the concourse of
the streets was in his eyes only an extraordinary multiplication of
such 'meetings.'
And now we come to that last and most subtle quality of all, to that
sense of prospect, of outlook, that is brought so powerfully to our
minds by a road. In real nature, as well as in old landscapes,
beneath that impartial daylight in which a whole variegated plain is
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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 Mosses From An Old Manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne: accompanied by his son in the expedition, for the purpose of
selecting a tract of land and felling and burning the timber,
which necessarily preceded the removal of the household gods. Two
months of autumn were thus occupied, after which Reuben Bourne
and his young hunter returned to spend their last winter in the
settlements.
. . . . . . . . . . .
It was early in the month of May that the little family snapped
asunder whatever tendrils of affections had clung to inanimate
objects, and bade farewell to the few who, in the blight of
fortune, called themselves their friends. The sadness of the
Mosses From An Old Manse |
