| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Dark Lady of the Sonnets by George Bernard Shaw: it]._
THE DARK LADY. Madam: I implore you give me leave to go. I am
distracted with grief and shame. I--
ELIZABETH. Go _[The Dark Lady tries to kiss her hand]._ No more.
Go. _[The Dark Lady goes, convulsed]._ You have been cruel to that
poor fond wretch, Master Shakespear.
SHAKESPEAR. I am not truel, madam; but you know the fable of Jupiter
and Semele. I could not help my lightnings scorching her.
ELIZABETH. You have an overweening conceit of yourself, sir, that
displeases your Queen.
SHAKESPEAR. Oh, madam, can I go about with the modest cough of a
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Louis Lambert by Honore de Balzac: which we looked on for the first time. We were mere children; I, at
any rate, who was but thirteen; Louis, at fifteen, might have the
precocity of genius, but at that time we were incapable of falsehood
in the most trivial matters of our life as friends. Indeed, if
Lambert's powerful mind had any presentiment of the importance of such
facts, he was far from appreciating their whole bearing; and he was
quite astonished by this incident. I asked him if he had not perhaps
been brought to Rochambeau in his infancy, and my question struck him;
but after thinking it over, he answered in the negative. This
incident, analogous to what may be known of the phenomena of sleep in
several persons, will illustrate the beginnings of Lambert's line of
Louis Lambert |
