| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield: "Oh, Frau Kellermann, please don't break the spell," said Elsa.
The Advanced Lady looked at her very sympathetically. "Have you, too,
found the magic heart of Nature?" she said.
That was Herr Langen's cue. "Nature has no heart," said he, very bitterly
and readily, as people do who are over-philosophised and underfed. "She
creates that she may destroy. She eats that she may spew up and she spews
up that she may eat. That is why we, who are forced to eke out an
existence at her trampling feet, consider the world mad, and realise the
deadly vulgarity of production."
"Young man," interrupted Herr Erchardt, "you have never lived and you have
never suffered!"
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Confessio Amantis by John Gower: Al one upon miself it is,
That I with bothe love and kinde
Am so bestad, that I can finde
No weie how I it mai asterte:
Which stant upon myn oghne herte
And toucheth to non other lif,
Save only to that swete wif
For whom, bot if it be amended,
Mi glade daies ben despended, 410
That I miself schal noght forbere
The Wraththe which that I now bere,
Confessio Amantis |
