| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lady Windermere's Fan by Oscar Wilde: darling!
LADY AGATHA. [Entering L.] Yes, mamma. [Stands back of table
L.C.]
DUCHESS OF BERWICK. Come and bid good-bye to Lady Windermere, and
thank her for your charming visit. [Coming down again.] And by
the way, I must thank you for sending a card to Mr. Hopper - he's
that rich young Australian people are taking such notice of just at
present. His father made a great fortune by selling some kind of
food in circular tins - most palatable, I believe - I fancy it is
the thing the servants always refuse to eat. But the son is quite
interesting. I think he's attracted by dear Agatha's clever talk.
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from King Lear by William Shakespeare: The knowledge of themselves.
A drum afar off.
Edg. Give me your hand.
Far off methinks I hear the beaten drum.
Come, father, I'll bestow you with a friend. Exeunt.
Scene VII.
A tent in the French camp.
Enter Cordelia, Kent, Doctor, and Gentleman.
Cor. O thou good Kent, how shall I live and work
To match thy goodness? My life will be too short
And every measure fail me.
King Lear |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Under the Red Robe by Stanley Weyman: had been so long a stranger, with that which a man may scorn for
years, to find it at last beyond his reach drunk with the touch
of a good woman's lips.
I passed the bridge in this state; and my feet were among the
brushwood before the heat and fervour in which I moved found on a
sudden their direction. Something began to penetrate to my
veiled senses--a hoarse inarticulate cry, now deep, now shrilling
horribly, that of itself seemed to fill the wood. It came at
intervals of half a minute or so, and made the flesh creep, it
rang so full of dumb pain, of impotent wrestling, of unspeakable
agony. I am a man and have seen things. I saw the Concini
|
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 Unseen World and Other Essays by John Fiske: bakers, bear witness to the vast commercial progress. We find
England, fresh from her stupendous victory over the whole power
of Spain, again in the front rank of nations; France, under the
most astute of modern sovereigns, taking her place for a time as
the political leader of the civilized world; Spain, with her evil
schemes baffled in every quarter, sinking into that terrible
death-like lethargy, from which she has hardly yet awakened, and
which must needs call forth our pity, though it is but the
deserved retribution for her past behaviour. While the little
realm of the Netherlands, filched and cozened from the
unfortunate Jacqueline by the "good" Duke of Burgundy, carried
The Unseen World and Other Essays |
