| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde: SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [Rising.] I didn't think so then. I don't
think so now. Wealth has given me enormous power. It gave me at the
very outset of my life freedom, and freedom is everything. You have
never been poor, and never known what ambition is. You cannot
understand what a wonderful chance the Baron gave me. Such a chance
as few men get.
LORD GORING. Fortunately for them, if one is to judge by results.
But tell me definitely, how did the Baron finally persuade you to -
well, to do what you did?
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. When I was going away he said to me that if I
ever could give him any private information of real value he would
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Marie by H. Rider Haggard: I think that Sunday seemed the longest day I ever spent. The Vrouw
Prinsloo would scarcely allow me even a glimpse of Marie, because of
some fad she had got into her mind that it was either not proper or not
fortunate, I forget which, that a bride and bridegroom should associate
on the eve of their marriage. So I occupied myself as best I could.
First I wrote a long letter to my father, the third that I had sent,
telling him everything that was going to happen, and saying how grieved
I was that he could not be present to marry us and give us his blessing.
This letter I gave to a trader who was trekking to the bay on the
following morning, begging him to forward it by the first opportunity.
That duty done, I saw about the horses which I was taking into Zululand,
Marie |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Protagoras by Plato: evil. And I think that Simonides and his countrymen the Ceans, when they
spoke of 'hard' meant 'evil,' or something which you do not understand.
Let us ask Prodicus, for he ought to be able to answer questions about the
dialect of Simonides. What did he mean, Prodicus, by the term 'hard'?
Evil, said Prodicus.
And therefore, I said, Prodicus, he blames Pittacus for saying, 'Hard is
the good,' just as if that were equivalent to saying, Evil is the good.
Yes, he said, that was certainly his meaning; and he is twitting Pittacus
with ignorance of the use of terms, which in a Lesbian, who has been
accustomed to speak a barbarous language, is natural.
Do you hear, Protagoras, I asked, what our friend Prodicus is saying? And
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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 The Lamentable Tragedy of Locrine and Mucedorus by William Shakespeare: I scorn you all.
OLIVER.
You will not have her then?
STRUMBO.
No, as I am a true gentleman.
WILLIAM.
Then will we school you, ere you and we part hence.
[They fight. Enter Margery and snatch the staff out
of her brother's hand, as he is fighting.]
STRUMBO.
Aye, you come in pudding time, or else I had dressed them.
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