| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Lover's Complaint by William Shakespeare: And comely-distant sits he by her side;
When he again desires her, being sat,
Her grievance with his hearing to divide:
If that from him there may be aught applied
Which may her suffering ecstasy assuage,
'Tis promised in the charity of age.
'Father,' she says, 'though in me you behold
The injury of many a blasting hour,
Let it not tell your judgement I am old;
Not age, but sorrow, over me hath power:
I might as yet have been a spreading flower,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton: one of them, if only he might have shaken off his own! But, no--
the iron circle of consciousness held them too: each one was
hand-cuffed to his own hideous ego. Why wish to be any one man
rather than another? The only absolute good was not to be . . .
And Flint, coming in to draw his bath, would ask if he preferred
his eggs scrambled or poached that morning?
On the fifth day he wrote a long urgent letter to Allonby; and
for the succeeding two days he had the occupation of waiting for
an answer. He hardly stirred from his rooms, in his fear of
missing the letter by a moment; but would the District Attorney
write, or send a representative: a policeman, a "secret agent,"
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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 The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: traversed from end to end, through the middle, by a dark streak,
which is the empty container.
The fluid contents must ooze slowly through the side of those
tubular threads, rolled into twisted strings, and thus render the
network sticky. It is sticky, in fact, and in such a way as to
provoke surprise. I bring a fine straw flat down upon three or
four rungs of a sector. However gentle the contact, adhesion is at
once established. When I lift the straw, the threads come with it
and stretch to twice or three times their length, like a thread of
India-rubber. At last, when over-taut, they loosen without
breaking and resume their original form. They lengthen by
The Life of the Spider |
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 She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith: HASTINGS. (To him.) You never spoke better in your whole life. Keep
it up, and I'll insure you the victory.
MISS HARDCASTLE. I'm afraid you flatter, sir. You that have seen so
much of the finest company, can find little entertainment in an obscure
corner of the country.
MARLOW. (Gathering courage.) I have lived, indeed, in the world,
madam; but I have kept very little company. I have been but an
observer upon life, madam, while others were enjoying it.
MISS NEVILLE. But that, I am told, is the way to enjoy it at last.
HASTINGS. (To him.) Cicero never spoke better. Once more, and you
are confirmed in assurance for ever.
She Stoops to Conquer |
