| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Under the Red Robe by Stanley Weyman: through all the years then?
Then? But now? What was she thinking now, at this moment as she
stood silent and absorbed near the stone seat, a shadowy figure
with face turned from me? Was she recalling the man's words,
fitting them to the facts and the past, adding this and that
circumstance? Was she, though she had rebuffed him in the body,
collating, now he was gone, all that he had said, and out of
these scraps piecing together the damning truth? Was she, for
all that she had said, beginning to see me as I was? The thought
tortured me. I could brook uncertainty no longer. I went nearer
to her and touched her sleeve.
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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 Symposium by Xenophon: [79] Plat. "Rep." 620 E; "Laws," 854 C.
Nic. Heavens! you have good reason to be proud; with me it is just the
opposite. When any of my friends are doing well, they take good care
to turn their backs on me,[80] but if ever it goes ill with them, they
claim relationship by birth,[81] and will not let their long-lost
cousin out of sight.
[80] Or, "they take good care to get out of my way," "they hold aloof
from me entirely."
[81] Or, "produce the family-pedigree and claim me for a cousin." Cf.
Lucian v., "Tim." 49; Ter. "Phorm." ii. 33, 45.
Charm. Well, well! and you, sir (turning to the Syracusan), what do
The Symposium |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Hiero by Xenophon: hole like a woman hidden in the house, and is jealous of any other
citizen who goes into foreign parts and sees things of interest"
(Jowett).
Perhaps you will retort: "Why should he trouble to go abroad to seek
for such things? They are sure to come to him, although he stops at
home." Yes, Simonides, that is so far true; a small percentage of them
no doubt will, and this scant moiety will be sold at so high a price
to the despotic monarch, that the exhibitor of the merest trifle looks
to receive from the imperial pocket, within the briefest interval, ten
times more than he can hope to win from all the rest of mankind in a
lifetime; and then he will be off.[22]
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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 King Lear by William Shakespeare: That ever penury, in contempt of man,
Brought near to beast. My face I'll grime with filth,
Blanket my loins, elf all my hair in knots,
And with presented nakedness outface
The winds and persecutions of the sky.
The country gives me proof and precedent
Of Bedlam beggars, who, with roaring voices,
Strike in their numb'd and mortified bare arms
Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary;
And with this horrible object, from low farms,
Poor pelting villages, sheepcotes, and mills,
King Lear |
