| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Oedipus Trilogy by Sophocles: [Enter TEIRESIAS, led by a boy.]
OEDIPUS
Teiresias, seer who comprehendest all,
Lore of the wise and hidden mysteries,
High things of heaven and low things of the earth,
Thou knowest, though thy blinded eyes see naught,
What plague infects our city; and we turn
To thee, O seer, our one defense and shield.
The purport of the answer that the God
Returned to us who sought his oracle,
The messengers have doubtless told thee--how
Oedipus Trilogy |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Persuasion by Jane Austen: on finding out whose daughter she was, and there had been so much
going on every day, there had been so many walks between their lodgings
and the Harvilles, and she had got books from the library,
and changed them so often, that the balance had certainly been
much in favour of Lyme. She had been taken to Charmouth too,
and she had bathed, and she had gone to church, and there were a great many
more people to look at in the church at Lyme than at Uppercross;
and all this, joined to the sense of being so very useful,
had made really an agreeable fortnight.
Anne enquired after Captain Benwick, Mary's face was clouded directly.
Charles laughed.
Persuasion |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte: "What can possess him to come home in that style?" said Miss Ingram.
"He rode Mesrour (the black horse), did he not, when he went out?
and Pilot was with him:- what has he done with the animals?"
As she said this, she approached her tall person and ample garments
so near the window, that I was obliged to bend back almost to the
breaking of my spine: in her eagerness she did not observe me at
first, but when she did, she curled her lip and moved to another
casement. The post-chaise stopped; the driver rang the door-bell,
and a gentleman alighted attired in travelling garb; but it was not
Mr. Rochester; it was a tall, fashionable-looking man, a stranger.
"How provoking!" exclaimed Miss Ingram: "you tiresome monkey!"
Jane Eyre |
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 Lysis by Plato: Yes, he said.
Then one half of the saying is untrue, if the wicked are like one another?
That is true.
But the real meaning of the saying, as I imagine, is, that the good are
like one another, and friends to one another; and that the bad, as is often
said of them, are never at unity with one another or with themselves; for
they are passionate and restless, and anything which is at variance and
enmity with itself is not likely to be in union or harmony with any other
thing. Do you not agree?
Yes, I do.
Then, my friend, those who say that the like is friendly to the like mean
Lysis |
