| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death by Patrick Henry: the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated;
we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have
implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and
Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced
additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded;
and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne!
In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and
reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free--
if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which
we have been so long contending--if we mean not basely to abandon the noble
struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Mrs. Warren's Profession by George Bernard Shaw: I could do with a whisky and soda now very well, if only they had
such a things in this place.
FRANK. Perhaps Vivie's got some.
MRS WARREN. Nonsense! What would a young girl like her be doing
with such things! Never mind: it dont matter. I wonder how she
passes her time here! I'd a good deal rather be in Vienna.
FRANK. Let me take you there. [He helps her to take off her
shawl, gallantly giving her shoulders a very perceptible squeeze
as he does so].
MRS WARREN. Ah! would you? I'm beginning to think youre a chip
of the old block.
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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 Catriona by Robert Louis Stevenson: The way that he was following brought us close in by the windmill,
where I was aware of a man in seaman's trousers, who seemed to be
spying from behind it. Only, of course, we took him in the rear.
"See, Alan!"
"Wheesht!" said, he, "this is my affairs."
The man was, no doubt, a little deafened by the clattering of the mill,
and we got up close before he noticed. Then he turned, and we saw he
was a big fellow with a mahogany face.
"I think, sir," says Alan, "that you speak the English?"
"NON, MONSIEUR," says he, with an incredible bad accent.
"NON, MONSIEUR," cries Alan, mocking him. "Is that how they learn you
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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 Lair of the White Worm by Bram Stoker: in, throwing up clouds of sand which fell back and hissed amongst
the rising water. The heavily built house shook to its foundations.
Great stones were thrown up as from a volcano, some of them, great
masses of hard stone, squared and grooved with implements wrought by
human hands, breaking up and splitting in mid air as though riven by
some infernal power. Trees near the house--and therefore presumably
in some way above the hole, which sent up clouds of dust and steam
and fine sand mingled, and which carried an appalling stench which
sickened the spectators--were torn up by the roots and hurled into
the air. By now, flames were bursting violently from all over the
ruins, so dangerously that Adam caught up his wife in his arms, and
Lair of the White Worm |
