| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from De Profundis by Oscar Wilde: lot, and that if ever I lie in the cool grass at night-time it will
be to write sonnets to the moon. When I go out of prison, R- will
be waiting for me on the other side of the big iron-studded gate,
and he is the symbol, not merely of his own affection, but of the
affection of many others besides. I believe I am to have enough to
live on for about eighteen months at any rate, so that if I may not
write beautiful books, I may at least read beautiful books; and
what joy can be greater? After that, I hope to be able to recreate
my creative faculty.
But were things different: had I not a friend left in the world;
were there not a single house open to me in pity; had I to accept
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Several Works by Edgar Allan Poe: fro with a dull, heavy, monotonous clang; and when the minute-hand
made the circuit of the face, and the hour was to be stricken,
there came from the brazen lungs of the clock a sound which was
clear and loud and deep and exceedingly musical, but of so peculiar
a note and emphasis that, at each lapse of an hour, the musicians
of the orchestra were constrained to pause, momentarily, in their
performance, to harken to the sound; and thus the waltzers perforce
ceased their evolutions; and there was a brief disconcert of the
whole gay company; and, while the chimes of the clock yet rang, it
was observed that the giddiest grew pale, and the more aged and
sedate passed their hands over their brows as if in confused
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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 Walking by Henry David Thoreau: needle is slow to settle,--varies a few degrees, and does not
always point due southwest, it is true, and it has good authority
for this variation, but it always settles between west and
south-southwest. The future lies that way to me, and the earth
seems more unexhausted and richer on that side. The outline which
would bound my walks would be, not a circle, but a parabola, or
rather like one of those cometary orbits which have been thought
to be non-returning curves, in this case opening westward, in
which my house occupies the place of the sun. I turn round and
round irresolute sometimes for a quarter of an hour, until I
decide, for a thousandth time, that I will walk into the
Walking |
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 Confidence by Henry James: her figure was light; she bent and leaned easily;
she wore a gray dress, fastened up as was then the fashion,
and displaying the broad edge of a crimson petticoat.
She kept her position; she seemed absorbed in the view.
"Is she posing--is she attitudinizing for my benefit?"
Longueville asked of himself. And then it seemed to him
that this was a needless assumption, for the prospect
was quite beautiful enough to be looked at for itself,
and there was nothing impossible in a pretty girl having
a love of fine landscape. "But posing or not," he went on,
"I will put her into my sketch. She has simply put herself in.
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