| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A House of Pomegranates by Oscar Wilde: had finished his prayer he rose up, and turning round he looked at
them sadly.
And lo! through the painted windows came the sunlight streaming
upon him, and the sun-beams wove round him a tissued robe that was
fairer than the robe that had been fashioned for his pleasure. The
dead staff blossomed, and bare lilies that were whiter than pearls.
The dry thorn blossomed, and bare roses that were redder than
rubies. Whiter than fine pearls were the lilies, and their stems
were of bright silver. Redder than male rubies were the roses, and
their leaves were of beaten gold.
He stood there in the raiment of a king, and the gates of the
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Dark Lady of the Sonnets by George Bernard Shaw: way. They could turn out anything they were asked for, and even heap
up the measure. They reviled the British Public, and never forgave it
for ignoring their best work and admiring their splendid commonplaces;
but they produced the commonplaces all the same, and made them sound
magnificent by mere brute faculty for their art. When Shakespear was
forced to write popular plays to save his theatre from ruin, he did it
mutinously, calling the plays "As _You_ Like It," and "Much Ado About
Nothing." All the same, he did it so well that to this day these two
genial vulgarities are the main Shakespearian stock-in-trade of our
theatres. Later on Burbage's power and popularity as an actor enabled
Shakespear to free himself from the tyranny of the box office, and to
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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 An International Episode by Henry James: as she said, had made, in New York, a clubhouse of her drawing room--
no tidings were to be obtained; but Lord Lambeth was certainly
attentive enough to make up for the accidental absences,
the short memories, all the other irregularities of everyone else.
He drove them in the park, he took them to visit private collections
of pictures, and, having a house of his own, invited them to dinner.
Mrs. Westgate, following the fashion of many of her compatriots,
caused herself and her sister to be presented at the English
court by her diplomatic representative--for it was in this
manner that she alluded to the American minister to England,
inquiring what on earth he was put there for, if not to make
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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 The Lamentable Tragedy of Locrine and Mucedorus by William Shakespeare: For love aboundeth still with policy:
And thither still means Locrine to repair,
Till Atropos cut off mine uncle's life.
[Exit.]
ACT IV. SCENE IV. The entrance of a cave,
near which runs the river, afterward the Humber.]
[Enter Humber alone, saying:]
HUMBER.
O vita misero longa, foelici brevis,
Eheu! malorum fames extremum malum.
Long have I lived in this desert cave,
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