| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Adam Bede by George Eliot: the wood? Don't be frightened--I'll take care of you now."
Hetty was blushing so, she didn't know whether she was happy or
miserable. To be crying again--what did gentlemen think of girls
who cried in that way? She felt unable even to say "no," but
could only look away from him and wipe the tears from her cheek.
Not before a great drop had fallen on her rose-coloured strings--
she knew that quite well.
"Come, be cheerful again. Smile at me, and tell me what's the
matter. Come, tell me."
Hetty turned her head towards him, whispered, "I thought you
wouldn't come," and slowly got courage to lift her eyes to him.
Adam Bede |
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: happy.
The last two occasions on which I was allowed to see my friends
here, I tried to be as cheerful as possible, and to show my
cheerfulness, in order to make them some slight return for their
trouble in coming all the way from town to see me. It is only a
slight return, I know, but it is the one, I feel certain, that
pleases them most. I saw R- for an hour on Saturday week, and I
tried to give the fullest possible expression of the delight I
really felt at our meeting. And that, in the views and ideas I am
here shaping for myself, I am quite right is shown to me by the
fact that now for the first time since my imprisonment I have a
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from United States Declaration of Independence: He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection
and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns,
and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries
to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun
with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the
most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy of the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas
to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of
their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
United States Declaration of Independence |
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 The Memorabilia by Xenophon: them have only to utter, and they can make friends of whom they list;
and there are certain philtres also which those who have the secret of
them may administer to whom they like and win their love.
Cri. From what source shall we learn them?
Soc. You need not go farther than Homer to learn that which the Sirens
sang to Odysseus,[9] the first words of which run, I think, as
follows:
Hither, come hither, thou famous man, Odysseus, great glory of the
Achaeans!
[9] "Od." xii. 184.
Cri. And did the magic words of this spell serve for all men alike?
The Memorabilia |
