| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Euthydemus by Plato: they knew all things. For at last Ctesippus began to throw off all
restraint; no question in fact was too bad for him; he would ask them if
they knew the foulest things, and they, like wild boars, came rushing on
his blows, and fearlessly replied that they did. At last, Crito, I too was
carried away by my incredulity, and asked Euthydemus whether Dionysodorus
could dance.
Certainly, he replied.
And can he vault among swords, and turn upon a wheel, at his age? has he
got to such a height of skill as that?
He can do anything, he said.
And did you always know this?
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Jolly Corner by Henry James: might have TAKEN it for personal; yet for what did Brydon take it,
he asked himself, while, softly panting, he felt his eyes almost
leave their sockets. Ah this time at last they WERE, the two, the
opposed projections of him, in presence; and this time, as much as
one would, the question of danger loomed. With it rose, as not
before, the question of courage - for what he knew the blank face
of the door to say to him was "Show us how much you have!" It
stared, it glared back at him with that challenge; it put to him
the two alternatives: should he just push it open or not? Oh to
have this consciousness was to THINK - and to think, Brydon knew,
as he stood there, was, with the lapsing moments, not to have
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane: with their dishevelled shoes near the heads of her children.
She shrouded herself, puffing and snorting, in a cloud of steam
at the stove, and eventually extracted a frying-pan full of potatoes
that hissed.
She flourished it. "Come teh yer suppers, now," she cried
with sudden exasperation. "Hurry up, now, er I'll help yeh!"
The children scrambled hastily. With prodigious clatter they
arranged themselves at table. The babe sat with his feet dangling
high from a precarious infant chair and gorged his small stomach.
Jimmie forced, with feverish rapidity, the grease-enveloped pieces
between his wounded lips. Maggie, with side glances of fear of
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets |
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 Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories by Alice Dunbar: with their glowing greens and violets and yellows appear, and
then, as if by magic, the streets and buildings flame and burst
like poppies out of bud, into a glorious refulgence of colour
that steeps the senses into a languorous acceptance of warmth and
beauty.
On Mardi Gras day, as you know, it is a town gone mad with folly.
A huge masked ball emptied into the streets at daylight; a
meeting of all nations on common ground, a pot-pourri of every
conceivable human ingredient, but faintly describes it all.
There are music and flowers, cries and laughter and song and
joyousness, and never an aching heart to show its sorrow or dim
The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories |
