| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Timaeus by Plato: changes occur. For, as we affirm, a thing can only remain the same with
itself, whole and sound, when the same is added to it, or subtracted from
it, in the same respect and in the same manner and in due proportion; and
whatever comes or goes away in violation of these laws causes all manner of
changes and infinite diseases and corruptions. Now there is a second class
of structures which are also natural, and this affords a second opportunity
of observing diseases to him who would understand them. For whereas marrow
and bone and flesh and sinews are composed of the four elements, and the
blood, though after another manner, is likewise formed out of them, most
diseases originate in the way which I have described; but the worst of all
owe their severity to the fact that the generation of these substances
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Georgics by Virgil: Whether on hill or plain 'tis best to plant
Your vineyard first inquire. If on some plain
You measure out rich acres, then plant thick;
Thick planting makes no niggard of the vine;
But if on rising mound or sloping bill,
Then let the rows have room, so none the less
Each line you draw, when all the trees are set,
May tally to perfection. Even as oft
In mighty war, whenas the legion's length
Deploys its cohorts, and the column stands
In open plain, the ranks of battle set,
Georgics |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from I Have A Dream by Martin Luther King, Jr.: that this speech had never been copyrighted, since at that time
it was required to post a copyright notice on printed copies to
be distributed, and this speech was distributed without such an
extra (C) Copyright notice as was then required in the US. The
US revised this law in 1989, an no longer requires such notice.
#STARTMARK#
I have a Dream
by Martin Luther King, Jr.
Delivered on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington
D.C. on August 28, 1963
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow
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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 Confessio Amantis by John Gower: The yonge babes criden alle:
This noyse aros, the lord it herde,
And loked out, and how it ferde 3240
He sih, and as who seith abreide
Out of his slep, and thus he seide:
"O thou divine pourveance,
Which every man in the balance
Of kinde hast formed to be liche,
The povere is bore as is the riche
And deieth in the same wise,
Upon the fol, upon the wise
Confessio Amantis |
