| 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: that they might turn it into a synonym for folly. What I suffered
then, and still suffer, is not for pen to write or paper to record.
My wife, always kind and gentle to me, rather than that I should
hear the news from indifferent lips, travelled, ill as she was, all
the way from Genoa to England to break to me herself the tidings of
so irreparable, so irremediable, a loss. Messages of sympathy
reached me from all who had still affection for me. Even people
who had not known me personally, hearing that a new sorrow had
broken into my life, wrote to ask that some expression of their
condolence should be conveyed to me. . . .
Three months go over. The calendar of my daily conduct and labour
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Koran: Verily, in the alternation of night and day, and in what God has
created of the heavens and the earth, are signs unto a people who do
fear.
Verily, those who hope not for our meeting, and are content with the
life of this world, and are comforted thereby, and those who are
neglectful of our signs,- these, their resort is fire for that which
they have earned!
Verily, those Who believe and do what is right, their Lord guides
them by their faith; beneath them shall rivers flow in the gardens
of pleasure.
Their cry therein shall be, 'Celebrated be Thy praises, O God!'
The Koran |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Touchstone by Edith Wharton: Against his wife, for not knowing what he suffered? Against
Flamel, for being the unconscious instrument of his wrong-doing?
Or against that mute memory to which his own act had suddenly
given a voice of accusation? Yes, that was it; and his punishment
henceforth would be the presence, the unescapable presence, of the
woman he had so persistently evaded. She would always be there
now. It was as though he had married her instead of the other.
It was what she had always wanted--to be with him--and she had
gained her point at last. . . .
He sprang up, as though in an impulse of flight. . . . The sudden
movement lifted his wife's lids, and she asked, in the incurious
|
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 Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare: From Florence, and must here deliver them.
TRANIO.
Well, sir, to do you courtesy,
This will I do, and this I will advise you:
First, tell me, have you ever been at Pisa?
PEDANT.
Ay, sir, in Pisa have I often been,
Pisa renowned for grave citizens.
TRANIO.
Among them know you one Vincentio?
PEDANT.
The Taming of the Shrew |
