| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne: than stand to be prick'd and tortured to death by 'em.
--And how did Garrick speak the soliloquy last night?--Oh, against all
rule, my lord,--most ungrammatically! betwixt the substantive and the
adjective, which should agree together in number, case, and gender, he made
a breach thus,--stopping, as if the point wanted settling;--and betwixt the
nominative case, which your lordship knows should govern the verb, he
suspended his voice in the epilogue a dozen times three seconds and three
fifths by a stop watch, my lord, each time.--Admirable grammarian!--But in
suspending his voice--was the sense suspended likewise? Did no expression
of attitude or countenance fill up the chasm?--Was the eye silent? Did you
narrowly look?--I look'd only at the stop-watch, my lord.--Excellent
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from De Profundis by Oscar Wilde: spendthrift of my own genius, and to waste an eternal youth gave me
a curious joy. Tired of being on the heights, I deliberately went
to the depths in the search for new sensation. What the paradox
was to me in the sphere of thought, perversity became to me in the
sphere of passion. Desire, at the end, was a malady, or a madness,
or both. I grew careless of the lives of others. I took pleasure
where it pleased me, and passed on. I forgot that every little
action of the common day makes or unmakes character, and that
therefore what one has done in the secret chamber one has some day
to cry aloud on the housetop. I ceased to be lord over myself. I
was no longer the captain of my soul, and did not know it. I
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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 Tanglewood Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne: cannot speak. The wretch lives too long! Quick! offer him the
wine!"
Now King Aegeus had been gazing earnestly at the young
stranger, as he drew near the throne. There was something, he
knew not what, either in his white brow, or in the fine
expression of his mouth, or in his beautiful and tender eyes,
that made him indistinctly feel as if he had seen this youth
before; as if, indeed, he had trotted him on his knee when a
baby, and had beheld him growing to be a stalwart man, while he
himself grew old. But Medea guessed how the king felt, and
would not suffer him to yield to these natural sensibilities;
Tanglewood Tales |
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 Child of Storm by H. Rider Haggard: forgive me, since that cow did not love the pasture in your kraal, but
in mine she grows fat and is content. Moreover, in return I will give
you many other cows. Everything that I have to give, I will give to you
who are my friend and trusted councillor. Send me word, O Saduko, that
this wall which I have built between us is broken down, since ere long
you and I must stand together in war."
To this message Saduko's answer was:
"O Prince, you are troubled about a very little thing. That cow which
you have taken was of no worth to me, for who wishes to keep a beast
that is ever tearing and lowing at the gates of the kraal, disturbing
those who would sleep inside with her noise? Had you asked her of me, I
Child of Storm |
