| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf: me and men like me politicians. You asked me a moment ago whether
I'd done what I set out to do. Well, when I consider my life,
there is one fact I admit that I'm proud of; owing to me some thousands
of girls in Lancashire--and many thousands to come after them--
can spend an hour every day in the open air which their mothers
had to spend over their looms. I'm prouder of that, I own,
than I should be of writing Keats and Shelley into the bargain!"
It became painful to Rachel to be one of those who write Keats
and Shelley. She liked Richard Dalloway, and warmed as he warmed.
He seemed to mean what he said.
"I know nothing!" she exclaimed.
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: this is also excellent. It tells us of a man who had, all
his life through, entertained a passion for certain blue
hills on the far horizon, and had promised himself to travel
thither ere he died, and become familiar with these distant
friends. At last, in some political trouble, he is banished
to the very place of his dreams. He arrives there overnight,
and, when he rises and goes forth in the morning, there sure
enough are the blue hills, only now they have changed places
with him, and smile across to him, distant as ever, from the
old home whence he has come. Such a story might have been
very cynically treated; but it is not so done, the whole tone
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Hated Son by Honore de Balzac: satisfactions of which are doomed to blast so much, desire, that evil
of terrestrial love, had not as yet attacked them. Like two zephyrs
swaying on the same willow-branch, they needed nothing more than the
joy of looking at each other in the mirror of the limpid waters;
immensity sufficed them; they admired their Ocean, without one thought
of gliding on it in the white-winged bark with ropes of flowers,
sailed by Hope.
Love has its moment when it suffices to itself, when it is happy in
merely being. During this springtime, when all is budding, the lover
sometimes hides from the beloved woman, in order to enjoy her more, to
see her better; but Etienne and Gabrielle plunged together into all
|
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 Men of Iron by Howard Pyle: turned over his duties to Gascoyne and Wilkes, and then hurried
after the messenger. He found Lord George in the antechamber,
three gentlemen squires arming him in a magnificent suit of
ribbed Milan.
He greeted Myles with a nod and a smile as the lad entered.
"Sirrah," said he, "I have had a talk with Mackworth this morn
concerning thee, and have a mind to do thee an honor in my poor
way. How wouldst thou like to ride to-day as my special squire of
escort?"
Myles flushed to the roots of his hair. "Oh, sir!" he cried,
eagerly, "an I be not too ungainly for thy purpose, no honor in
Men of Iron |
