| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Four Arthurian Romances by Chretien DeTroyes: and tears, Lancelot leaves in great distress. He grieves that no
time is fixed for another meeting, but it cannot be. Regretfully
he leaves by the window through which he had entered so happily.
He was so badly wounded in the fingers that they were in sorry,
state; yet he straightened the bars and set them in their place
again, so that from neither side, either before or behind, was it
evident that any one had drawn out or bent any of the bars. When
he leaves the room, he bows and acts precisely as if he were
before a shrine; then he goes with a heavy heart, and reaches his
lodgings without being recognised by any one. He throws himself
naked upon his bed without awaking any one, and then for the
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy: "But you've rather a feverish-looking color," he said, laying
stress on the word "feverish."
"We've been talking too much," said Betsy. "I feel it's
selfishness on my part, and I am going away." She got up, but
Anna, suddenly flushing, quickly caught at her hand. "No, wait a
minute, please. I must tell you ...no, you." She turned to
Alexey Alexandrovitch, and her neck and brow were suffused with
crimson. "I won't and can't keep anything secret from you," she
said.
Alexey Alexandrovitch cracked his fingers and bowed his head.
"Betsy's been telling me that Count Vronsky wants to come here to
Anna Karenina |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The New Machiavelli by H. G. Wells: railway, their yards are hung with tattered washing unashamed; and
there seem to be more boards by the railway every time I pass,
advertising pills and pickles, tonics and condiments, and suchlike
solicitudes of a people with no natural health nor appetite left in
them. . . .
Well, we have to do better. Failure is not failure nor waste wasted
if it sweeps away illusion and lights the road to a plan.
6
Chaotic indiscipline, ill-adjusted effort, spasmodic aims, these
give the quality of all my Bromstead memories. The crowning one of
them all rises to desolating tragedy. I remember now the wan spring
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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 An Unsocial Socialist by George Bernard Shaw: Agatha said:
"And are you two also smarting under a sense of the
inconsiderateness and selfishness of the rest of the world--both
misunderstood--everything expected from you, and no allowances
made for you?"
"I don't know what you mean by both of us," said Gertrude coldly.
"Neither do I," said Jane angrily. "That is just the way people
treat me. You may laugh, Agatha; and she may turn up her nose as
much as she likes; you know it's true. But the idea of Gertrude
wanting to make out that she isn't considered is nothing but
sentimentality, and vanity, and nonsense."
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