| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence: in his stockinged feet. Still they listened. Then at last,
if the wind allowed, they heard the water of the tap drumming into
the kettle, which their mother was filling for morning, and they
could go to sleep in peace.
So they were happy in the morning--happy, very happy playing,
dancing at night round the lonely lamp-post in the midst of
the darkness. But they had one tight place of anxiety in their hearts,
one darkness in their eyes, which showed all their lives.
Paul hated his father. As a boy he had a fervent private religion.
"Make him stop drinking," he prayed every night. "Lord, let my
father die," he prayed very often. "Let him not be killed at pit,"
Sons and Lovers |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Pair of Blue Eyes by Thomas Hardy: contralto voice.
'Do you like that old thing, Mr. Smith?' she said at the end.
'Yes, I do much,' said Stephen--words he would have uttered, and
sincerely, to anything on earth, from glee to requiem, that she
might have chosen.
'You shall have a little one by De Leyre, that was given me by a
young French lady who was staying at Endelstow House:
'"Je l'ai plante, je l'ai vu naitre,
Ce beau rosier ou les oiseaux," &c.;
and then I shall want to give you my own favourite for the very
last, Shelley's "When the lamp is shattered," as set to music by
A Pair of Blue Eyes |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle: disturbance in my wife."
"In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?"
"Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I
will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to
without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion."
"Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said
Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have
nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the
breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?"
"We could see the other side of the road and the Park."
"Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes |
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 Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde: parasol.]
GWENDOLEN. [Looking round.] Quite a well-kept garden this is,
Miss Cardew.
CECILY. So glad you like it, Miss Fairfax.
GWENDOLEN. I had no idea there were any flowers in the country.
CECILY. Oh, flowers are as common here, Miss Fairfax, as people
are in London.
GWENDOLEN. Personally I cannot understand how anybody manages to
exist in the country, if anybody who is anybody does. The country
always bores me to death.
CECILY. Ah! This is what the newspapers call agricultural
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