| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift: their mothers, and frequently of their fathers, is in the present
deplorable state of the kingdom, a very great additional
grievance; and therefore whoever could find out a fair, cheap and
easy method of making these children sound and useful members of
the common-wealth, would deserve so well of the publick, as to
have his statue set up for a preserver of the nation.
But my intention is very far from being confined to provide only
for the children of professed beggars: it is of a much greater
extent, and shall take in the whole number of infants at a
certain age, who are born of parents in effect as little able to
support them, as those who demand our charity in the streets.
A Modest Proposal |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence: soul is, and in a spirit of fine, discriminative sympathy. For even
satire is a form of sympathy. It is the way our sympathy flows and
recoils that really determines our lives. And here lies the vast
importance of the novel, properly handled. It can inform and lead into
new places the flow of our sympathetic consciousness, and it can lead
our sympathy away in recoil from things gone dead. Therefore, the
novel, properly handled, can reveal the most secret places of life: for
it is in the PASSIONAL secret places of life, above all, that the tide
of sensitive awareness needs to ebb and flow, cleansing and freshening.
But the novel, like gossip, can also excite spurious sympathies and
recoils, mechanical and deadening to the psyche. The novel can glorify
Lady Chatterley's Lover |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Oscar Wilde Miscellaneous by Oscar Wilde: kings brought Him offerings, and the shepherds who were lying on the
hills were wakened by a great light.
The Sibyls knew of His coming. The groves and the oracles spake of
Him. David and the prophets announced Him. There is no love like
the love of God nor any love that can be compared to it.
The body is vile, Myrrhina. God will raise thee up with a new body
which will not know corruption, and thou shalt dwell in the Courts
of the Lord and see Him whose hair is like fine wool and whose feet
are of brass.
MYRRHINA. The beauty. . .
HONORIUS. The beauty of the soul increases until it can see God.
|
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 Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: rest.
When we came to fit this man out, my old partner told me there was
a certain very honest fellow, a Brazil planter of his acquaintance,
who had fallen into the displeasure of the Church. "I know not
what the matter is with him," says he, "but, on my conscience, I
think he is a heretic in his heart, and he has been obliged to
conceal himself for fear of the Inquisition." He then told me that
he would be very glad of such an opportunity to make his escape,
with his wife and two daughters; and if I would let them go to my
island, and allot them a plantation, he would give them a small
stock to begin with - for the officers of the Inquisition had
Robinson Crusoe |
