| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Timaeus by Plato: And oftentimes when the flesh is dissolved in the body, wind, generated
within and unable to escape, is the source of quite as much pain as the air
coming in from without; but the greatest pain is felt when the wind gets
about the sinews and the veins of the shoulders, and swells them up, and so
twists back the great tendons and the sinews which are connected with them.
These disorders are called tetanus and opisthotonus, by reason of the
tension which accompanies them. The cure of them is difficult; relief is
in most cases given by fever supervening. The white phlegm, though
dangerous when detained within by reason of the air-bubbles, yet if it can
communicate with the outside air, is less severe, and only discolours the
body, generating leprous eruptions and similar diseases. When it is
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The House of Dust by Conrad Aiken: Death, from street to alley, from door to window,
Cries out his news,--of unplumbed worlds approaching,
Of a cloud of darkness soon to destroy the tower.
But why comes death,--he asks,--in a world so perfect?
Or why the minute's grey in the golden hour?
Music, a sudden glissando, sinister, troubled,
A drift of wind-torn petals, before him passes
Down jangled streets, and dies.
The bodies of old and young, of maimed and lovely,
Are slowly borne to earth, with a dirge of cries.
Down cobbled streets they come; down huddled stairways;
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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 The Figure in the Carpet by Henry James: specious pretexts, turn for superior truth to Paris - Paris being
somehow, for a Cheltenham aunt, the school of evil, the abyss. I
deplored this prejudice at the time, and the deep injury of it was
now visible - first in the fact that it hadn't saved the poor boy,
who was clever, frail and foolish, from congestion of the lungs,
and second in the greater break with London to which the event
condemned me. I'm afraid that what was uppermost in my mind during
several anxious weeks was the sense that if we had only been in
Paris I might have run over to see Corvick. This was actually out
of the question from every point of view: my brother, whose
recovery gave us both plenty to do, was ill for three months,
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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 Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories by Alice Dunbar: but Tony got drunk one day and beat her because she ate too much,
and she disappeared soon after. Whence she came and where she
departed, no one could tell, not even Mrs. Murphy, the Pauline
Pry and Gazette of the block.
Tony had gout, and suffered for many days in roaring
helplessness, the while his foot, bound and swathed in many folds
of red flannel, lay on the chair before him. In proportion as
his gout increased and he bawled from pure physical discomfort,
she became light-hearted, and moved about the shop with real,
brisk cheeriness. He could not hit her then without such pain
that after one or two trials he gave up in disgust.
The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories |
