| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Bride of Lammermoor by Walter Scott: my Lord Castle-Cuddy--we were hand and glove: I rode his horses,
borrowed money both for him and from him, trained his hawks, and
taught him how to lay his bets; and when he took a fancy of
marrying, I married him to Katie Glegg, whom I thought myself as
sure of as man could be of woman. Egad, she had me out of the
house, as if I had run on wheels, within the first
fortnight!"
"Well!" replied Bucklaw, "I think I have nothing of Castle-
Cuddy about me, or Lucy of Katie Glegg. But you see the thing
will go on whether you like it or no; the only question is, will
you be useful?"
The Bride of Lammermoor |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Symposium by Xenophon: of," canto iii.:
How many scores a Flea will jump
Of his own length from Head to Rump
Which Socrates and Chaerephon
In vain essayed so long agon.
But here Antisthenes, appealing to Philippus, interposed: You are a
man full of comparisons.[13] Does not this worthy person strike you as
somewhat like a bully seeking to pick a quarrel?[14]
[13] Like Biron, "L. L. L." v. 2. 854. Or, "you are a clever
caricaturist." See Plat. "Symp." 215 A; Hug, "Enleitung," xiv.;
Aristoph. "Birds," 804 (Frere, p. 173); "Wasps," 1309.
The Symposium |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The House of Dust by Conrad Aiken: The room grows dark once more,
The crack of white light narrows around the door,
And all is silent, except a slow complaining
Of flutes and violins, like music waning.
Take my hand, then, walk with me
By the slow soundless crashings of a sea . . .
Look, how white these shells are, on this sand!
Take my hand,
And watch the waves run inward from the sky
Line upon foaming line to plunge and die.
The music that bound our lives is lost behind us,
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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 Princess by Alfred Tennyson: And chiefly you were born for something great,
In which I might your fellow-worker be,
When time should serve; and thus a noble scheme
Grew up from seed we two long since had sown;
In us true growth, in her a Jonah's gourd,
Up in one night and due to sudden sun:
We took this palace; but even from the first
You stood in your own light and darkened mine.
What student came but that you planed her path
To Lady Psyche, younger, not so wise,
A foreigner, and I your countrywoman,
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