| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lady Windermere's Fan by Oscar Wilde: of you. [Shakes hands with her.]
[Enter PARKER.]
PARKER. Lord Augustus Lorton. Mrs. Erlynne's carriage has come.
[Enter LORD AUGUSTUS.]
LORD AUGUSTUS. Good morning, dear boy. Good morning, Lady
Windermere. [Sees MRS. ERLYNNE.] Mrs. Erlynne!
MRS. ERLYNNE. How do you do, Lord Augustus? Are you quite well
this morning?
LORD AUGUSTUS. [Coldly.] Quite well, thank you, Mrs. Erlynne.
MRS. ERLYNNE. You don't look at all well, Lord Augustus. You stop
up too late - it is so bad for you. You really should take more
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Madam How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley: Now you must remember, whenever you have to do with him, that
Analysis, like fire, is a very good servant, but a very bad
master. For, having got his freedom only of late years or so, he
is, like young men when they come suddenly to be their own
masters, apt to be conceited, and to fancy that he knows
everything, when really he knows nothing, and can never know
anything, but only knows about things, which is a very different
matter. Indeed, nowadays he pretends that he can teach his old
grandmother, Madam How, not only how to suck eggs, but to make
eggs into the bargain; while the good old lady just laughs at him
kindly, and lets him run on, because she knows he will grow wiser
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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 Night and Day by Virginia Woolf: was entirely destructive of poetry, since it was to the effect that
poetry had nothing whatever to do with her; all her friends spent
their lives in making up phrases, she said; all his feeling was an
illusion, and next moment, as if to taunt him with his impotence, she
had sunk into one of those dreamy states which took no account
whatever of his existence. Ralph was roused by his passionate attempts
to attract her attention to the fact that he was standing in the
middle of his little private room in Lincoln's Inn Fields at a
considerable distance from Chelsea. The physical distance increased
his desperation. He began pacing in circles until the process sickened
him, and then took a sheet of paper for the composition of a letter
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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 Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Bronte Sisters: on her shoulders, he gave her, I suppose, a sketch of the great
things he meant to do, for she suddenly threw her arms round him,
and burst into tears, exclaiming, - 'Do, do, Ralph - we shall be so
happy! How very, very good you are!'
'Nay, not I,' said he, turning her round, and pushing her towards
me. 'Thank her; it's her doing.'
Milicent flew to thank me, overflowing with gratitude. I
disclaimed all title to it, telling her her husband was predisposed
to amendment before I added my mite of exhortation and
encouragement, and that I had only done what she might, and ought
to have done herself.
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall |
