| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Salome by Oscar Wilde: Pourquoi vos vetements sont-ils teints d'ecarlate?
HERODIAS. Rentrons. La voix de cet homme m'exaspere. Je ne veux
pas que ma fille danse pendant qu'il crie comme cela. Je ne veux
pas qu'elle danse pendant que vous la regardez comme cela. Enfin,
je ne veux pas qu'elle danse.
HERODE. Ne te leve pas, mon epouse, ma reine, c'est inutile. Je ne
rentrerai pas avant qu'elle n'ait danse. Dansez, Salome, dansez
pour moi.
HERODIAS. Ne dansez pas, ma fille.
SALOME. Je suis prete, tetrarque.
[Salome danse la danse des sept voiles.]
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Time Machine by H. G. Wells: were removed. It had moved, and was hid, only in space. But
then, where could it be?
`I think I must have had a kind of frenzy. I remember running
violently in and out among the moonlit bushes all round the
sphinx, and startling some white animal that, in the dim light, I
took for a small deer. I remember, too, late that night, beating
the bushes with my clenched fist until my knuckles were gashed
and bleeding from the broken twigs. Then, sobbing and raving in
my anguish of mind, I went down to the great building of stone.
The big hall was dark, silent, and deserted. I slipped on the
uneven floor, and fell over one of the malachite tables, almost
The Time Machine |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Walden by Henry David Thoreau: I thought of living there before I went to Walden. I "hooked" the
apples, leaped the brook, and scared the musquash and the trout. It
was one of those afternoons which seem indefinitely long before one,
in which many events may happen, a large portion of our natural
life, though it was already half spent when I started. By the way
there came up a shower, which compelled me to stand half an hour
under a pine, piling boughs over my head, and wearing my
handkerchief for a shed; and when at length I had made one cast over
the pickerelweed, standing up to my middle in water, I found myself
suddenly in the shadow of a cloud, and the thunder began to rumble
with such emphasis that I could do no more than listen to it. The
Walden |
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 Marie by H. Rider Haggard: and he is not even old enough to practise such things, being but an
unmarried boy. Chief, you, also, are young. Would not your heart be
heavy if you had to be slain when the sun of your life was still new in
the sky? Think, White Chief, what your father would feel, if you have
one, should he be forced to see you killed before his eyes, that some
stranger might use your body to show his skill with a magic weapon by
slaying the wild things that would eat it."
Now, almost with tears, I broke in, explaining to the venerable man as
well as I could that their horrible fate had nothing to do with me. I
told him that I was innocent of their blood, who was forced to be there
to try to shoot vultures on the wing in order to save my white
Marie |
