| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Shakespeare's Sonnets by William Shakespeare: Or what strong hand can hold his swift foot back?
Or who his spoil of beauty can forbid?
O! none, unless this miracle have might,
That in black ink my love may still shine bright.
LXVI
Tired with all these, for restful death I cry,
As to behold desert a beggar born,
And needy nothing trimm'd in jollity,
And purest faith unhappily forsworn,
And gilded honour shamefully misplac'd,
And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, etc. by Oscar Wilde: Willie Hughes! How musically it sounded! Yes; who else but he
could have been the master-mistress of Shakespeare's passion, (1)
the lord of his love to whom he was bound in vassalage, (2) the
delicate minion of pleasure, (3) the rose of the whole world, (4)
the herald of the spring (5) decked in the proud livery of youth,
(6) the lovely boy whom it was sweet music to hear, (7) and whose
beauty was the very raiment of Shakespeare's heart, (8) as it was
the keystone of his dramatic power? How bitter now seemed the
whole tragedy of his desertion and his shame! - shame that he made
sweet and lovely (9) by the mere magic of his personality, but that
was none the less shame. Yet as Shakespeare forgave him, should
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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 Allan Quatermain by H. Rider Haggard: I could not breathe; the fierce heat dried me up. For yards
and yards round the great rose of fire the rock-roof was red-hot.
The wood of the boat was almost burning. I saw the feathers
on one of the dead swans begin to twist and shrivel up; but I
would not give in. I knew that if I did we should pass within
three or four yards of the gas jet and perish miserably. I set
the paddle so as to turn the canoe as far from it as possible,
and held on grimly.
My eyes seemed to be bursting from my head, and through my closed
lids I could see the fierce light. We were nearly opposite now;
it roared like all the fires of hell, and the water boiled furiously
Allan Quatermain |
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 Phantasmagoria and Other Poems by Lewis Carroll: Was alive to my passion;
And she'd done up her hair in the style that
the Empress had brought into fashion.
I had been to the play
With my pearl of a Peri -
But, for all I could say,
She declared she was weary,
That "the place was so crowded and hot, and
she couldn't abide that Dundreary."
Then I thought "Lucky boy!
'Tis for YOU that she whimpers!"
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