| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring by George Bernard Shaw: Loki are the main bulwark, that no Government has yet had the
conscience or the courage to repeal our monstrous laws against
"blasphemy."
SIEGFRIED
Sieglinda, when she flies into the forest with the hero's son
unborn in her womb, and the broken pieces of his sword in her
hand, finds shelter in the smithy of a dwarf, where she brings
forth her child and dies. This dwarf is no other than Mimmy, the
brother of Alberic, the same who made for him the magic helmet.
His aim in life is to gain possession of the helmet, the ring,
and the treasure, and through them to obtain that Plutonic
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Droll Stories, V. 1 by Honore de Balzac: chains with which the little darling played, and which bound her for
ever to the said seneschal. The old soldier was so merry by her side,
that his happiness showed itself in his wrinkles, his looks, and his
movements. Although he was hardly as straight as a billhook, he held
himself so by the side of Blanche, that one would have taken him for a
soldier on parade receiving his officer, and he placed his hand on his
diaphragm like a man whose pleasure stifles and troubles him.
Delighted with the sound of the swinging bells, the procession, the
pomps, and the vanities of the said marriage, which was talked of long
after the episcopal rejoicings, the women desired a harvest of Moorish
girls, a deluge of old seneschals, and baskets full of Egyptian
Droll Stories, V. 1 |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Records of a Family of Engineers by Robert Louis Stevenson: about half a mile.
The SMEATON having just arrived at her moorings with a
cargo, a signal was made for Captain Pool to come on board of
the tender, that he might be at hand to remove from the
service any of those who might persist in their discontented
conduct. One of the two principal leaders in this affair, the
master of one of the praam-boats, who had also steered the
boat which brought the letter to the beacon, was first called
upon deck, and asked if he had read the statement fixed up in
the galley this afternoon, and whether he was satisfied with
it. He replied that he had read the paper, but was not
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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 Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, etc. by Oscar Wilde: great culture and learning, was extremely fond of clocks, and had a
wonderful collection of timepieces, ranging from the fifteenth
century to the present day, and it seemed to Lord Arthur that this
hobby of the good Dean's offered him an excellent opportunity for
carrying out his scheme. Where to procure an explosive machine
was, of course, quite another matter. The London Directory gave
him no information on the point, and he felt that there was very
little use in going to Scotland Yard about it, as they never seemed
to know anything about the movements of the dynamite faction till
after an explosion had taken place, and not much even then.
Suddenly he thought of his friend Rouvaloff, a young Russian of
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