| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Duchess of Padua by Oscar Wilde: [throws dice]
Sixes again! good Pietro.
SECOND SOLDIER
I' faith, lieutenant, I will play with thee no more. I will lose
everything.
THIRD SOLDIER
Except thy wits; thou art safe there!
SECOND SOLDIER
Ay, ay, he cannot take them from me.
THIRD SOLDIER
No; for thou hast no wits to give him.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from My Aunt Margaret's Mirror by Walter Scott: entrance into the world. We were a large family, of very
different dispositions and constitutions. Some were dull and
peevish--they were sent to Aunt Margaret to be amused; some were
rude, romping, and boisterous--they were sent to Aunt Margaret to
be kept quiet, or rather that their noise might be removed out of
hearing; those who were indisposed were sent with the prospect of
being nursed; those who were stubborn, with the hope of their
being subdued by the kindness of Aunt Margaret's discipline;--in
short, she had all the various duties of a mother, without the
credit and dignity of the maternal character. The busy scene of
her various cares is now over. Of the invalids and the robust,
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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 Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy: "Is it? Do I strike you as being learned?" she asked, with a touch
of raillery.
"No--not learned. Only you don't talk quite like a girl--well, a girl
who has had no advantages."
"I have had advantages. I don't know Latin and Greek, though I
know the grammars of those tongues. But I know most of the Greek
and Latin classics through translations, and other books too.
I read Lempriere, Catullus, Martial, Juvenal, Lucian, Beaumont
and Fletcher, Boccaccio, Scarron, De Brantame, Sterne, De Foe,
Smollett, Fielding, Shakespeare, the Bible, and other such;
and found that all interest in the unwholesome part of those books
Jude the Obscure |
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 Aeneid by Virgil: In midst of Italy, well known to fame,
There lies a lake (Amsanctus is the name)
Below the lofty mounts: on either side
Thick forests the forbidden entrance hide.
Full in the center of the sacred wood
An arm arises of the Stygian flood,
Which, breaking from beneath with bellowing sound,
Whirls the black waves and rattling stones around.
Here Pluto pants for breath from out his cell,
And opens wide the grinning jaws of hell.
To this infernal lake the Fury flies;
Aeneid |
