| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Damnation of Theron Ware by Harold Frederic: fully into her eyes. "I've had five days of the saints,
over in another part of the woods, and they've bored the
head off me."
CHAPTER XXIII
At the command of Father Forbes, a lad who was loitering
near them went down through the throng to the bar,
and returned with three glasses of beer. It pleased
the Rev. Mr. Ware that the priest should have taken it
for granted that he would do as the others did. He knocked
his glass against theirs in compliance with a custom strange
to him, but which they seemed to understand very well.
The Damnation of Theron Ware |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Prufrock/Other Observations by T. S. Eliot: And begins.
"You do not know how much they mean to me, my friends,
And how, how rare and strange it is, to find
In a life composed so much, so much of odds and ends,
(For indeed I do not love it ... you knew? you are not blind!
How keen you are!)
To find a friend who has these qualities,
Who has, and gives
Those qualities upon which friendship lives.
How much it means that I say this to you--
Without these friendships--life, what cauchemar!"
Prufrock/Other Observations |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Reason Discourse by Rene Descartes: solid body, select one of the chief, on which alone they make the light
fall, and throwing the rest into the shade, allow them to appear only in
so far as they can be seen while looking at the principal one; so, fearing
lest I should not be able to compense in my discourse all that was in my
mind, I resolved to expound singly, though at considerable length, my
opinions regarding light; then to take the opportunity of adding something
on the sun and the fixed stars, since light almost wholly proceeds from
them; on the heavens since they transmit it; on the planets, comets, and
earth, since they reflect it; and particularly on all the bodies that are
upon the earth, since they are either colored, or transparent, or
luminous; and finally on man, since he is the spectator of these objects.
Reason Discourse |
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 Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde: their absurd want of meaning, their entire lack of style.
They affect us just as vulgarity affects us. They give us
an impression of sheer brute force, and we revolt against that.
Sometimes, however, a tragedy that possesses artistic elements
of beauty crosses our lives. If these elements of beauty are real,
the whole thing simply appeals to our sense of dramatic effect.
Suddenly we find that we are no longer the actors,
but the spectators of the play. Or rather we are both.
We watch ourselves, and the mere wonder of the spectacle
enthralls us. In the present case, what is it that has
really happened? Some one has killed herself for love of you.
The Picture of Dorian Gray |
