| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield: time you come up the stairs. But we couldn't have gone on living in that
other poky little hole, William. Be practical, at least! Why, there
wasn't enough room for the babies even."
No, it was true. Every morning when he came back from chambers it was to
find the babies with Isabel in the back drawing-room. They were having
rides on the leopard skin thrown over the sofa back, or they were playing
shops with Isabel's desk for a counter, or Pad was sitting on the hearthrug
rowing away for dear life with a little brass fire shovel, while Johnny
shot at pirates with the tongs. Every evening they each had a pick-a-back
up the narrow stairs to their fat old Nanny.
Yes, he supposed it was a poky little house. A little white house with
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A House of Pomegranates by Oscar Wilde: and her breath was hot upon his face. 'Faster, faster!' she cried,
and the earth seemed to spin beneath his feet, and his brain grew
troubled, and a great terror fell on him, as of some evil thing
that was watching him, and at last he became aware that under the
shadow of a rock there was a figure that had not been there before.
It was a man dressed in a suit of black velvet, cut in the Spanish
fashion. His face was strangely pale, but his lips were like a
proud red flower. He seemed weary, and was leaning back toying in
a listless manner with the pommel of his dagger. On the grass
beside him lay a plumed hat, and a pair of riding-gloves gauntleted
with gilt lace, and sewn with seed-pearls wrought into a curious
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Gambara by Honore de Balzac: of an epileptic, mad for enjoyment, unable to read or write, using all
his defects as stepping-stones, turning every blunder and disaster
into a triumph? Did not you feel a sense of his fascination exerted
over a greedy and lustful race, in this overture, which is an epitome
of the opera?"
At first calm and stern, the maestro's face, in which Andrea had been
trying to read the ideas he was uttering in inspired tones, though the
chaotic flood of notes afforded no clue to them, had by degrees glowed
with fire and assumed an impassioned force that infected Marianna and
the cook. Marianna, too, deeply affected by certain passages in which
she recognized a picture of her own position, could not conceal the
Gambara |
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 Glasses by Henry James: I had an impression that Iffield wouldn't, but I didn't communicate
it, for I wanted to pacify my friend, whom I had discomposed too
much for the purposes of my sitting. I recollect that I did some
good work that morning, but it also comes back to me that before we
separated he had practically revealed to me that my anecdote,
connecting itself in his mind with a series of observations at the
time unconscious and unregistered, had covered with light the
subject of our colloquy. He had had a formless perception of some
secret that drove Miss Saunt to subterfuges, and the more he
thought of it the more he guessed this secret to be the practice of
making believe she saw when she didn't and of cleverly keeping
|
