| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Prufrock/Other Observations by T. S. Eliot: II
The morning comes to consciousness
Of faint stale smells of beer
>From the sawdust-trampled street
With all its muddy feet that press
To early coffee-stands.
With the other masquerades
That time resumes,
One thinks of all the hands
That are raising dingy shades
In a thousand furnished rooms.
Prufrock/Other Observations |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Mrs. Warren's Profession by George Bernard Shaw: but that I should do the same thing. I said flatly that it was
not worth my while to face the grind since I was not going in for
teaching; but I offered to try for fourth wrangler or thereabouts
for fifty pounds. She closed with me at that, after a little
grumbling; and I was better than my bargain. But I wouldnt do it
again for that. Two hundred pounds would have been nearer the
mark.
PRAED [much damped] Lord bless me! Thats a very practical way of
looking at it.
VIVIE. Did you expect to find me an unpractical person?
PRAED. But surely it's practical to consider not only the work
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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 Rape of Lucrece by William Shakespeare: Her eyes, like marigolds, had sheath'd their light,
And canopied in darkness sweetly lay,
Till they might open to adorn the day.
Her hair, like golden threads, play'd with her breath;
O modest wantons! wanton modesty!
Showing life's triumph in the map of death,
And death's dim look in life's mortality:
Each in her sleep themselves so beautify,
As if between them twain there were no strife,
But that life liv'd in death, and death in life.
Her breasts, like ivory globes circled with blue,
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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 On Revenues by Xenophon: All these advantages, to repeat what I have said, may, I believe, be
traced primarily to the soil and position of Attica itself. But these
natural blessings may be added to: in the first place, by a careful
handling of our resident alien[1] population. And, for my part, I can
hardly conceive of a more splendid source of revenue than lies open in
this direction. Here you have a self-supporting class of residents
confering large benefits upon the state, and instead of receiving
payment[2] themselves, contributing on the contrary to the gain of the
exchequer by the sojourners' tax.[3] Nor, under the term careful
handling, do I demand more than the removal of obligations which,
whilst they confer no benefit on the state, have an air of inflicting
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