| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Mrs. Warren's Profession by George Bernard Shaw: are you about? Do come along. [He disappears].
FRANK. Hallo! Sort of chap that would take a prize at a dog
show, aint he? Who's he?
PRAED. Sir George Crofts, an old friend of Mrs Warren's. I
think we had better come in.
[On their way to the porch they are interrupted by a call from
the gate. Turning, they see an elderly clergyman looking over
it.]
THE CLERGYMAN [calling] Frank!
FRANK. Hallo! [To Praed] The Roman father. [To the clergyman]
Yes, gov'nor: all right: presently. [To Praed] Look here, Praed:
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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 Touchstone by Edith Wharton: famous and her laurels were yet unharvested.
For a moment the news roused Glennard to a jealous sense of lost
opportunities. He wanted, at any rate, to reassert his power
before she made the final effort of escape. They had not met for
over a year, but of course he could not let her sail without
seeing her. She came to New York the day before her departure,
and they spent its last hours together. Glennard had planned no
course of action--he simply meant to let himself drift. They both
drifted, for a long time, down the languid current of
reminiscence; she seemed to sit passive, letting him push his way
back through the overgrown channels of the past. At length she
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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 Golden Threshold by Sarojini Naidu: When lutes are strung and fragrant torches lit
On white roof-terraces where lovers sit
Drinking together of life's poignant sweet,
BUY FLOWERS, BUY FLOWERS, floats down the singing street.
TO INDIA
O young through all thy immemorial years!
Rise, Mother, rise, regenerate from thy gloom,
And, like a bride high-mated with the spheres,
Beget new glories from thine ageless womb!
The nations that in fettered darkness weep
Crave thee to lead them where great mornings break . . . .
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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 Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy: The hampered and lonely itinerant conscientiously covered up the marginal
readings, and used them merely on points of construction, as he would
have used a comrade or tutor who should have happened to be passing by.
And though Jude may have had little chance of becoming a scholar by these
rough and ready means, he was in the way of getting into the groove
he wished to follow.
While he was busied with these ancient pages, which had already been thumbed
by hands possibly in the grave, digging out the thoughts of these minds
so remote yet so near, the bony old horse pursued his rounds, and Jude would
be aroused from the woes of Dido by the stoppage of his cart and the voice
of some old woman crying, "Two to-day, baker, and I return this stale one."
Jude the Obscure |
