| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Bride of Lammermoor by Walter Scott: Craigengelt, but in a manner sufficiently offensive to the
Ashtons. "He thought the report," he said, "highly probably, and
heartily wished it might be true. Such a match was fitter and
far more creditable for a spirited young fellow than a marriage
with the daughter of an old Whig lawyer, whose chicanery had so
nearly ruined his father."
The other party, of course, laying out of view the
opposition which the Master of Ravenswood received from Miss
Ashton's family, cried shame upon his fickleness and perfidy, as
if he had seduced the young lady into an engagement, and wilfully
and causelessly abandoned her for another.
The Bride of Lammermoor |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton: and swept the dangerous packet under the blotting-book.
"Oh, go away, please, there's a dear," she called out; "I
haven't finished unpacking, and everything's in such a mess."
Gathering up Nick's papers and letters, she ran across the room
and thrust them through the door. "Here's something to keep you
quiet," she laughed, shining in on him an instant from the
threshold.
She turned back feeling weak with shame. Ellie's letter lay on
the floor: reluctantly she stooped to pick it up, and one by
one the expected phrases sprang out at her.
"One good turn deserves another .... Of course you and Nick are
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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 Elixir of Life by Honore de Balzac: of love!"
The woman who sat next to Juan Belvidero looked at him with a
feverish glitter in her eyes. She was silent. Then--"I should
need no hired bravo to kill my lover if he forsook me!" she cried
at last, and laughed, but the marvelously wrought gold comfit box
in her fingers was crushed by her convulsive clutch.
"When are you to be Grand Duke?" asked the sixth. There was the
frenzy of a Bacchante in her eyes, and her teeth gleamed between
the lips parted with a smile of cruel glee.
"Yes, when is that father of yours going to die?" asked the
seventh, throwing her bouquet at Don Juan with bewitching
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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 Egmont by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe: without looking round. He imagines himself alone, and, on raising his
eyes, beholds Alva's son).
Thou tarriest here? Wouldst thou by thy presence augment my
amazement, my horror? Wouldst thou carry to thy father the welcome
tidings that in unmanly fashion I despair? Go. Tell him that he deceives
neither the world nor me. At first it will be whispered cautiously behind
his back, then spoken more and more loudly, and when at some future day
the ambitious man descends from his proud eminence, a thousand voices
will proclaim--that 'twas not the welfare of the state, not the honour of the
king, not the tranquillity of the provinces, that brought him hither. For his
own selfish ends he, the warrior, has counselled war, that in war the value
Egmont |
