| 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: que vous aurez danse n'oubliez pas de me demander tout ce que vous
voudrez. Tout ce que vous voudrez je vous le donnerai, fut-ce la
moitie de mon royaume. J'ai jure, n'est-ce pas?
SALOME. Vous avez jure, tetrarque.
HERODE. Et je n'ai jamais manque e ma parole. Je ne suis pas de
ceux qui manquent e leur parole. Je ne sais pas mentir. Je suis
l'esclave de ma parole, et ma parole c'est la parole d'un roi. Le
roi de Cappadoce ment toujours, mais ce n'est pas un vrai roi.
C'est un lache. Aussi il me doit de l'argent qu'il ne veut pas
payer. Il a meme insulte mes ambassadeurs. Il a dit des choses
tres blessantes. Mais Cesar le crucifiera quand il viendra e Rome.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Woman and Labour by Olive Schreiner: classes than the poorer, and is an unfailing indication of advancing modern
civilisation. (There is, indeed, often something pathetic in the attitude
of many a good old mother of the race, who having survived, here and there,
into the heart of our modern civilisation, is sorely puzzled by the change
in woman's duties and obligations. She may be found looking into the eyes
of some ancient crone, who, like herself, has survived from a previous
state of civilisation, seeking there a confirmation of a view of life of
which a troublous doubt has crept even into her own soul. "I," she cries,
"always cured my own hams, and knitted my own socks, and made up all the
linen by hand. We always did it when we were girls--but now my daughters
object!" And her old crone answers her? "Yes, we did it; it's the right
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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 New Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson: III.
I have a hoard of treasure in my breast;
The grange of memory steams against the door,
Full of my bygone lifetime's garnered store -
Old pleasures crowned with sorrow for a zest,
Old sorrow grown a joy, old penance blest,
Chastened remembrance of the sins of yore
That, like a new evangel, more and more
Supports our halting will toward the best.
Ah! what to us the barren after years
May bring of joy or sorrow, who can tell?
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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 Adam Bede by George Eliot: are my inward needs, and the besetments I am most in danger from.
Your wish for me to stay is not a call of duty which I refuse to
hearken to because it is against my own desires; it is a
temptation that I must resist, lest the love of the creature
should become like a mist in my soul shutting out the heavenly
light."
"It passes my cunning to know what you mean by ease and luxury,"
said Mrs. Poyser, as she cut the bread and butter. "It's true
there's good victual enough about you, as nobody shall ever say I
don't provide enough and to spare, but if there's ever a bit o'
odds an' ends as nobody else 'ud eat, you're sure to pick it
Adam Bede |
