| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Sophist by Plato: experiment; shall we say an angler? 'Very good.'
In the first place, the angler is an artist; and there are two kinds of
art,--productive art, which includes husbandry, manufactures, imitations;
and acquisitive art, which includes learning, trading, fighting, hunting.
The angler's is an acquisitive art, and acquisition may be effected either
by exchange or by conquest; in the latter case, either by force or craft.
Conquest by craft is called hunting, and of hunting there is one kind which
pursues inanimate, and another which pursues animate objects; and animate
objects may be either land animals or water animals, and water animals
either fly over the water or live in the water. The hunting of the last is
called fishing; and of fishing, one kind uses enclosures, catching the fish
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Reminiscences of Tolstoy by Leo Tolstoy: the next day, but completely lost his memory for a time.
Seeing my brother Andréi's children, who were staying
at Yásnaya, in the zala one day, he asked with some
surprise, "Whose children are these?" Meeting my wife, he said,
"Don't be offended, my dear; I know that I am very fond of you, but
I have quite forgotten who you are"; and when he went up to the
zala after one of these fainting fits, he looked round with
an astonished air and said, "Where's my brother Nítenka."
Nítenka had died fifty years before.
The day following all traces of the attack would disappear.
During one of these fainting fits my brother Sergéi, in
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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 Alcibiades I by Plato: view, but evil in another?
ALCIBIADES: True.
SOCRATES: And if honourable, then also good: Will you consider now
whether I may not be right, for you were acknowledging that the courage
which is shown in the rescue is honourable? Now is this courage good or
evil? Look at the matter thus: which would you rather choose, good or
evil?
ALCIBIADES: Good.
SOCRATES: And the greatest goods you would be most ready to choose, and
would least like to be deprived of them?
ALCIBIADES: Certainly.
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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 Eve and David by Honore de Balzac: on Metivier's account, waxed indignant at this. In Paris Lucien's
furniture had belonged to Coralie, and here again in Angouleme David's
goods and chattels all belonged to his wife or his father; pretty
things were said in court. Father and son were summoned; such claims
could not be allowed to stand.
"We mean to unmask the frauds intrenched behind bad faith of the most
formidable kind; here is the defence of dishonesty bristling with the
plainest and most innocent articles of the Code, and why?--to avoid
repayment of three thousand francs; obtained how?--from poor
Metivier's cash box! And yet there are those who dare to say a word
against bill-discounters! What times we live in! . . . Now, I put it
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