| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde: LADY BRACKNELL. Mr. Worthing! Rise, sir, from this semi-recumbent
posture. It is most indecorous.
GWENDOLEN. Mamma! [He tries to rise; she restrains him.] I must
beg you to retire. This is no place for you. Besides, Mr.
Worthing has not quite finished yet.
LADY BRACKNELL. Finished what, may I ask?
GWENDOLEN. I am engaged to Mr. Worthing, mamma. [They rise
together.]
LADY BRACKNELL. Pardon me, you are not engaged to any one. When
you do become engaged to some one, I, or your father, should his
health permit him, will inform you of the fact. An engagement
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Voyage to Abyssinia by Father Lobo: business, and brought a man above a hundred years old, whom, because
he could not support himself on horseback, they had tied on the
beast, and covered him with black wool. He was followed by a black
cow (designed for a sacrifice to the demon of the place), and by
some monks that carried mead, beer, and parched corn, to complete
the offering.
No sooner were they arrived at the foot of the mountain than every
one began to work: bags were brought from all parts to convey away
the millions which each imagined would be his share. The Xumo, who
superintended the work, would not allow any one to come near the
labourers, but stood by, attended by the old monk, who almost sang
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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 Flower Fables by Louisa May Alcott: And with that voice sounding in her ear, little Annie woke to find
it was a dream; but like other dreams it did not pass away; and as she
sat alone, bathed in the rosy morning light, and watched the forest
waken into life, she thought of the strange forms she had seen, and,
looking down upon the flower on her breast, she silently resolved to
strive, as she had striven in her dream, to bring back light and
beauty to its faded leaves, by being what the Fairy hoped to render
her, a patient, gentle little child. And as the thought came to her
mind, the flower raised its drooping head, and, looking up into the
earnest little face bent over it, seemed by its fragrant breath to
answer Annie's silent thought, and strengthen her for what might come.
Flower Fables |
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 Timaeus by Plato: in any of the other dialogues (Rep.; Laws) of the goodness of God. 'He was
good himself, and he fashioned the good everywhere.' He was not 'a jealous
God,' and therefore he desired that all other things should be equally
good. He is the IDEA of good who has now become a person, and speaks and
is spoken of as God. Yet his personality seems to appear only in the act
of creation. In so far as he works with his eye fixed upon an eternal
pattern he is like the human artificer in the Republic. Here the theory of
Platonic ideas intrudes upon us. God, like man, is supposed to have an
ideal of which Plato is unable to tell us the origin. He may be said, in
the language of modern philosophy, to resolve the divine mind into subject
and object.
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