| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Salome by Oscar Wilde: bouche. Ta voix etait un encensoir qui repandait d'etranges
parfums, et quand je te regardais j'entendais une musique etrange!
Ah! pourquoi ne m'as-tu pas regardee, Iokanaan? Derriere tes mains
et tes blasphemes tu as cache ton visage. Tu as mis sur tes yeux le
bandeau de celui qui veut voir son Dieu. Eh bien, tu l'as vu, ton
Dieu, Iokanaan, mais moi, moi . . . tu ne m'as jamais vue. Si tu
m'avais vue, tu m'aurais aimee. Moi, je t'ai vu, Iokanaan, et je
t'ai aime. Oh! comme je t'ai aime. Je t'aime encore, Iokanaan. Je
n'aime que toi . . . J'ai soif de ta beaute. J'ai faim de ton
corps. Et ni le vin, ni les fruits ne peuvent apaiser mon desir.
Que ferai-je, Iokanaan, maintenant? Ni les fleuves ni les grandes
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tales of the Klondyke by Jack London: get grub for the famine? Why haf not you the dust? Odder mans
haf plentee."
"But I work hard, Joy. Never a day am I not on trail or up creek.
Even now have I just come off. My dogs are yet tired. Other men
have luck and find plenty of gold; but I--I have no luck."
"Ah! But when this mans with the wife which is Indian, this mans
McCormack, when him discovaire the Klondike, you go not. Odder
mans go; odder mans now rich."
"You know I was prospecting over on the head-reaches of the
Tanana," Harrington protested, "and knew nothing of the Eldorado
or Bonanza until it was too late."
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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 Figure in the Carpet by Henry James: well of myself for."
I had a pause. "Don't you think you ought - just a trifle - to
assist the critic?"
"Assist him? What else have I done with every stroke of my pen?
I've shouted my intention in his great blank face!" At this,
laughing out again, Vereker laid his hand on my shoulder to show
the allusion wasn't to my personal appearance.
"But you talk about the initiated. There must therefore, you see,
BE initiation."
"What else in heaven's name is criticism supposed to be?" I'm
afraid I coloured at this too; but I took refuge in repeating that
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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 Virginibus Puerisque by Robert Louis Stevenson: when you read of well-disputed battles, or meet a pair of
lovers in the lane.
Certainly, whatever it may be with regard to the world at
large, this idea of beneficent pleasure is true as between the
sweethearts. To do good and communicate is the lover's grand
intention. It is the happiness of the other that makes his
own most intense gratification. It is not possible to
disentangle the different emotions, the pride, humility, pity
and passion, which are excited by a look of happy love or an
unexpected caress. To make one's self beautiful, to dress the
hair, to excel in talk, to do anything and all things that
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