| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence: 'Think!' he said. 'Think what if folks find out Sir Clifford an'
a'--an' everybody talkin'--'
'Well, I can go away.'
'Where to?'
'Anywhere! I've got money of my own. My mother left me twenty thousand
pounds in trust, and I know Clifford can't touch it. I can go away.'
'But 'appen you don't want to go away.'
'Yes, yes! I don't care what happens to me.'
'Ay, you think that! But you'll care! You'll have to care, everybody
has. You've got to remember your Ladyship is carrying on with a
game-keeper. It's not as if I was a gentleman. Yes, you'd care. You'd
Lady Chatterley's Lover |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini: claimed for it to its dominant position above the village rather
than to any feature of its own. Built of granite, like all the rest
of Gavrillac, though mellowed by some three centuries of existence,
it was a squat, flat-fronted edifice of two stories, each lighted by
four windows with external wooden shutters, and flanked at either end
by two square towers or pavilions under extinguisher roofs. Standing
well back in a garden, denuded now, but very pleasant in summer, and
immediately fronted by a fine sweep of balustraded terrace, it looked,
what indeed it was, and always had been, the residence of
unpretentious folk who found more interest in husbandry than in
adventure.
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Tin Woodman of Oz by L. Frank Baum: Emperor isn't all right for a tin man, but any judge of
beauty can understand that a Scarecrow is far more
artistic and refined."
"You are too soft and flimsy," said the Tin Woodman.
"You are too hard and stiff," said the Scarecrow, and
this was as near to quarreling as the two friends ever
came. Polychrome laughed at them both, as well she
might, and Woot hastened to change the subject.
At night they all camped underneath the trees. The
boy ate cream-puffs for supper and offered Polychrome
some, but she preferred other food and at daybreak
The Tin Woodman of Oz |
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 A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson: I shut my eyes and sail away
And see and hear no more.
And sometimes things to bed I take,
As prudent sailors have to do;
Perhaps a slice of wedding-cake,
Perhaps a toy or two.
All night across the dark we steer;
But when the day returns at last,
Safe in my room beside the pier,
I find my vessel fast.
XXXII
A Child's Garden of Verses |
