| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Heroes by Charles Kingsley: he went up to a cliff, and prayed for them, that they might
come home safe and well; while the heroes rowed away, and
watched him standing on his cliff above the sea, with his
great hands raised toward heaven, and his white locks waving
in the wind; and they strained their eyes to watch him to the
last, for they felt that they should look on him no more.
So they rowed on over the long swell of the sea, past
Olympus, the seat of the Immortals, and past the wooded bays
of Athos, and Samothrace the sacred isle; and they came past
Lemnos to the Hellespont, and through the narrow strait of
Abydos, and so on into the Propontis, which we call Marmora
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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 Recruit by Honore de Balzac: Normandy. Though Madame de Dey had known none but the nobles of her
own caste when she visited her property in former years, she now felt
it advisable to open her house to the principle bourgeois of the town,
and to the new governmental authorities; trying to make them pleased
at obtaining her society, without arousing either hatred or jealousy.
Gracious and kind, gifted by nature with that inexpressible charm
which can please without having recourse to subserviency or to making
overtures, she succeeded in winning general esteem by an exquisite
tact; the sensitive warnings of which enabled her to follow the
delicate line along which she might satisfy the exactions of this
mixed society, without humiliating the touchy pride of the parvenus,
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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 Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring by George Bernard Shaw: ceaseless energy of the life within himself to some superior
power in the clouds, and of making a fetish of self-sacrifice to
justify his own cowardice.
Farther on in The Ring we shall see the Hero arrive and make an
end of dwarfs, giants, and gods. Meanwhile, let us not forget
that godhood means to Wagner infirmity and compromise, and
manhood strength and integrity. Above all, we must understand--
for it is the key to much that we are to see--that the god, since
his desire is toward a higher and fuller life, must long in his
inmost soul for the advent of that greater power whose first
work, though this he does not see as yet, must be his own
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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 Passionate Pilgrim by William Shakespeare: She told the youngling how god Mars did try her,
And as he fell to her, so fell she to him.
'Even thus,' quoth she, 'the warlike god embraced me,'
And then she clipp'd Adonis in her arms;
'Even thus,' quoth she, 'the warlike god unlaced me,'
As if the boy should use like loving charms;
'Even thus,' quoth she, 'he seized on my lips
And with her lips on his did act the seizure
And as she fetched breath, away he skips,
And would not take her meaning nor her pleasure.
Ah, that I had my lady at this bay,
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