| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Grimm's Fairy Tales by Brothers Grimm: herself down and went to sleep.
By and by in came the masters of the cottage. Now they were seven
little dwarfs, that lived among the mountains, and dug and searched
for gold. They lighted up their seven lamps, and saw at once that all
was not right. The first said, 'Who has been sitting on my stool?' The
second, 'Who has been eating off my plate?' The third, 'Who has been
picking my bread?' The fourth, 'Who has been meddling with my spoon?'
The fifth, 'Who has been handling my fork?' The sixth, 'Who has been
cutting with my knife?' The seventh, 'Who has been drinking my wine?'
Then the first looked round and said, 'Who has been lying on my bed?'
And the rest came running to him, and everyone cried out that somebody
Grimm's Fairy Tales |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Menexenus by Plato: Phaedrus is to be attributed to Socrates. The address of the dead to the
living at the end of the oration may also be compared to the numerous
addresses of the same kind which occur in Plato, in whom the dramatic
element is always tending to prevail over the rhetorical. The remark has
been often made, that in the Funeral Oration of Thucydides there is no
allusion to the existence of the dead. But in the Menexenus a future state
is clearly, although not strongly, asserted.
Whether the Menexenus is a genuine writing of Plato, or an imitation only,
remains uncertain. In either case, the thoughts are partly borrowed from
the Funeral Oration of Thucydides; and the fact that they are so, is not in
favour of the genuineness of the work. Internal evidence seems to leave
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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 Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn: pleasure."
Ere morning the storm had passed; and day broke through a cloudless east.
Even if the sleeve of Aoyagi hid from her lover's eyes the rose-blush of
that dawn, he could no longer tarry. But neither could he resign himself to
part with the girl; and, when everything had been prepared for his journey,
he thus addressed her parents:--
"Though it may seem thankless to ask for more than I have already
received, I must again beg you to give me your daughter for wife. It would
be difficult for me to separate from her now; and as she is willing to
accompany me, if you permit, I can take her with me as she is. If you will
give her to me, I shall ever cherish you as parents... And, in the
Kwaidan |
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 Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf: her alone.
At that moment Rachel was sitting in her room doing absolutely nothing.
When the ship was full this apartment bore some magnificent title
and was the resort of elderly sea-sick ladies who left the deck
to their youngsters. By virtue of the piano, and a mess of books
on the floor, Rachel considered it her room, and there she would sit
for hours playing very difficult music, reading a little German,
or a little English when the mood took her, and doing--as at this moment--
absolutely nothing.
The way she had been educated, joined to a fine natural indolence,
was of course partly the reason of it, for she had been educated
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