| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The New Machiavelli by H. G. Wells: wrecked my preparation work for school next day. My father dug up
both lawns, and trenched and manured in spasms of immense vigour
alternating with periods of paralysing distaste for the garden. And
for weeks he talked about eight hundred pounds an acre at every
meal.
A garden, even when it is not exasperated by intensive methods, is a
thing as exacting as a baby, its moods have to he watched; it does
not wait upon the cultivator's convenience, but has times of its
own. Intensive culture greatly increases this disposition to
trouble mankind; it makes a garden touchy and hysterical, a drugged
and demoralised and over-irritated garden. My father got at cross
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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 Love and Friendship by Jane Austen: melancholy reflections which crowded into my imagination after
perusing Susan's letter to you, and which instantly occurred to
Matilda when she had perused it likewise. The same ideas, the
same fears, immediately occupied her Mind, and I know not which
reflection distressed her most, whether the probable Diminution
of our Fortunes, or her own Consequence. We both wish very much
to know whether Lady Lesley is handsome and what is your opinion
of her; as you honour her with the appellation of your freind, we
flatter ourselves that she must be amiable. My Brother is
already in Paris. He intends to quit it in a few Days, and to
begin his route to Italy. He writes in a most chearfull manner,
Love and Friendship |
