| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Parmenides by Plato: of all those things of none of which it is anything.
Clearly not.
Then the part is not a part of the many, nor of all, but is of a certain
single form, which we call a whole, being one perfect unity framed out of
all--of this the part will be a part.
Certainly.
If, then, the others have parts, they will participate in the whole and in
the one.
True.
Then the others than the one must be one perfect whole, having parts.
Certainly.
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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 Riverman by Stewart Edward White: them run! Servants, neighbours, friends--they all skedaddled, and
you couldn't have driven them back with a steam-roller! I
telegraphed to Redding for a nurse. Until she came Mrs. Orde stayed
by, like a brick. Don't know what I should have done without her.
There was nobody to do anything at all. As soon as the nurse came
Mrs. Orde gave up her post. I tell you," cried Doctor McMullen with
as near an approach to enthusiasm as he ever permitted himself,
"there's a sensible woman! None of your story-book twaddle about
nursing through the illness, and all that. When her usefulness was
ended, she knew enough to step aside gracefully. There was not much
danger as far as she was concerned. I had vaccinated her myself,
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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 Louis Lambert by Honore de Balzac: which we are maligning perhaps, by ticketing it without due knowledge.
In fact, he may perhaps have regarded the joys of marriage as an
obstacle to the perfection of his inner man and his flight towards
spiritual spheres."
"My dear sir," said the old man, after listening to me with attention,
"your reasoning is, no doubt, very sound; but even if I could follow
it, would this melancholy logic comfort me for the loss of my nephew?"
Lambert's uncle was one of those men who live only by their
affections.
I went to Villenoix on the following day. The kind old man accompanied
me to the gates of Blois. When we were out on the road to Villenoix,
Louis Lambert |
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 Bucolics by Virgil: And breath suffice me to rehearse thy deeds,
Nor Thracian Orpheus should out-sing me then,
Nor Linus, though his mother this, and that
His sire should aid- Orpheus Calliope,
And Linus fair Apollo. Nay, though Pan,
With Arcady for judge, my claim contest,
With Arcady for judge great Pan himself
Should own him foiled, and from the field retire.
Begin to greet thy mother with a smile,
O baby-boy! ten months of weariness
For thee she bore: O baby-boy, begin!
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