| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Intentions by Oscar Wilde: characteristics of all European civilisations; so he sees no
difference between a London mob of his own day and a Roman mob of
pagan days, between a silly watchman in Messina and a silly Justice
of the Peace in Windsor. But when he deals with higher characters,
with those exceptions of each age which are so fine that they
become its types, he gives them absolutely the stamp and seal of
their time. Virgilia is one of those Roman wives on whose tomb was
written 'Domi mansit, lanam fecit,' as surely as Juliet is the
romantic girl of the Renaissance. He is even true to the
characteristics of race. Hamlet has all the imagination and
irresolution of the Northern nations, and the Princess Katharine is
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen: lights burned down to the very branches, and as they burned down they were put
out one after the other, and then the children had permission to plunder the
Tree. So they fell upon it with such violence that all its branches cracked;
if it had not been fixed firmly in the ground, it would certainly have tumbled
down.
The children danced about with their beautiful playthings; no one looked at
the Tree except the old nurse, who peeped between the branches; but it was
only to see if there was a fig or an apple left that had been forgotten.
"A story! A story!" cried the children, drawing a little fat man towards the
Tree. He seated himself under it and said, "Now we are in the shade, and the
Tree can listen too. But I shall tell only one story. Now which will you have;
Fairy Tales |
