| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Oedipus Trilogy by Sophocles: The son of Labdacus, of Polydore,
Of Cadmus, and Agenor first of the race.
And for the disobedient thus I pray:
May the gods send them neither timely fruits
Of earth, nor teeming increase of the womb,
But may they waste and pine, as now they waste,
Aye and worse stricken; but to all of you,
My loyal subjects who approve my acts,
May Justice, our ally, and all the gods
Be gracious and attend you evermore.
CHORUS
Oedipus Trilogy |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass: two men, both advanced in years; there were the silvery locks of
Col. L., and there was the bald and toil-worn brow of Old Barney;
master and slave; superior and inferior here, but _equals_ at the
bar of God; and, in the common course of events, they must both
soon meet in another world, in a world where all distinctions,
except those based on obedience and disobedience, are blotted out
forever. "Uncover your head!" said the imperious master; he was
obeyed. "Take off your jacket, you old rascal!" and off came
Barney's jacket. "Down on your knees!" down knelt the old man,
his shoulders bare, his bald head glistening in the sun, and his
aged knees on the cold, damp ground. In his humble and debasing
My Bondage and My Freedom |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from God The Invisible King by H. G. Wells: glorious. The symbol of the crucifixion, the drooping, pain-
drenched figure of Christ, the sorrowful cry to his Father, "My God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" these things jar with our
spirit. We little men may well fail and repent, but it is our faith
that our God does not fail us nor himself. We cannot accept the
Christian's crucifix, or pray to a pitiful God. We cannot accept
the Resurrection as though it were an after-thought to a bitterly
felt death. Our crucifix, if you must have a crucifix, would show
God with a hand or a foot already torn away from its nail, and with
eyes not downcast but resolute against the sky; a face without pain,
pain lost and forgotten in the surpassing glory of the struggle and
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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 In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield: bawl. "I'm a landlady, I am, and a respectable woman, I'll have you know.
I'll have no lice in my house, sneaking their way into the furniture and
eating up everything. It's cash--or out you go before twelve o'clock to-
morrow."
Viola felt rather than saw the woman's gesture. She shot out her arm in a
stupid helpless way, as though a dirty pigeon had suddenly flown at her
face. "Filthy old beast! Ugh! And the smell of her--like stale cheese
and damp washing."
"Very well!" she answered shortly; "it's cash down or I leave to-morrow.
All right: don't shout."
It was extraordinary--always before this woman came near her she trembled
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