| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane: "Gosh-dern it!" he said in sharp irritation;
"you're the hangdest man I ever saw! You
wear muffs on your hands. Why in good
thunderation can't you be more easy? I'd rather
you'd stand off an' throw guns at it. Now, go
slow, an' don't act as if you was nailing down
carpet."
He glared with insolent command at his
friend, but the latter answered soothingly.
"Well, well, come now, an' git some grub," he
said. "Then, maybe, yeh'll feel better."
The Red Badge of Courage |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Critias by Plato: having a level surface and deep soil. The side of the hill was inhabited
by craftsmen and husbandmen; and the warriors dwelt by themselves on the
summit, around the temples of Hephaestus and Athene, in an enclosure which
was like the garden of a single house. In winter they retired into houses
on the north of the hill, in which they held their syssitia. These were
modest dwellings, which they bequeathed unaltered to their children's
children. In summer time the south side was inhabited by them, and then
they left their gardens and dining-halls. In the midst of the Acropolis
was a fountain, which gave an abundant supply of cool water in summer and
warm in winter; of this there are still some traces. They were careful to
preserve the number of fighting men and women at 20,000, which is equal to
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Kenilworth by Walter Scott: has condemned him of whom his friends once hoped far other
things, and who now scorns himself, as he will be scorned by
others, for the baseness he stoops to for the love of thee! But
I will not leave the pursuit of thee, once the object of my
purest and most devoted affection, though to me thou canst
henceforth be nothing but a thing to weep over. I will save thee
from thy betrayer, and from thyself; I will restore thee to thy
parent--to thy God. I cannot bid the bright star again sparkle
in the sphere it has shot from, but--"
A slight noise in the apartment interrupted his reverie. He
looked round, and in the beautiful and richly-attired female who
Kenilworth |
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 When the Sleeper Wakes by H. G. Wells: multitudes, the darkness and the fighting, a
phantasmagoria, a new and more vivid sort of dream. It
must be a dream; it was so inconsecutive, so
reasonless. Why were the people fighting for him? Why
should this saner world regard him as Owner and
Master?
So he thought, sitting blinded, and then he looked
again, half hoping in spite of his ears to see some
familiar aspect of the life of the nineteenth century, to
see, perhaps, the little harbour of Boscastle about him,
the cliffs of Pentargen, or the bedroom of his home.
When the Sleeper Wakes |
