| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Gorgias by Plato: to prevent a great man from being a good one, as is shown by the famous
example of Aristeides, the son of Lysimachus. But to Rhadamanthus the
souls are only known as good or bad; they are stripped of their dignities
and preferments; he despatches the bad to Tartarus, labelled either as
curable or incurable, and looks with love and admiration on the soul of
some just one, whom he sends to the islands of the blest. Similar is the
practice of Aeacus; and Minos overlooks them, holding a golden sceptre, as
Odysseus in Homer saw him
'Wielding a sceptre of gold, and giving laws to the dead.'
My wish for myself and my fellow-men is, that we may present our souls
undefiled to the judge in that day; my desire in life is to be able to meet
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Parmenides by Plato: ridiculous than the hypothesis of the being of one. Zeal for my master led
me to write the book in the days of my youth, but some one stole the copy;
and therefore I had no choice whether it should be published or not; the
motive, however, of writing, was not the ambition of an elder man, but the
pugnacity of a young one. This you do not seem to see, Socrates; though in
other respects, as I was saying, your notion is a very just one.
I understand, said Socrates, and quite accept your account. But tell me,
Zeno, do you not further think that there is an idea of likeness in itself,
and another idea of unlikeness, which is the opposite of likeness, and that
in these two, you and I and all other things to which we apply the term
many, participate--things which participate in likeness become in that
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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 Les Miserables by Victor Hugo: of a watch in the dark. He thought of the double march which was
going on at that moment in the dark,--crime advancing on one side,
justice coming up on the other. He was not afraid, but he could
not think without a shudder of what was about to take place.
As is the case with all those who are suddenly assailed by an
unforeseen adventure, the entire day produced upon him the effect
of a dream, and in order to persuade himself that he was not the
prey of a nightmare, he had to feel the cold barrels of the steel
pistols in his trousers pockets.
It was no longer snowing; the moon disengaged itself
more and more clearly from the mist, and its light,
Les Miserables |
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 Parmenides by Plato: a process of generation and destruction, into and from being and not-being,
the one and the others. For the generation of the one is the destruction
of the others, and the generation of the others is the destruction of the
one. There is also separation and aggregation, assimilation and
dissimilation, increase, diminution, equalization, a passage from motion to
rest, and from rest to motion in the one and many. But when do all these
changes take place? When does motion become rest, or rest motion? The
answer to this question will throw a light upon all the others. Nothing
can be in motion and at rest at the same time; and therefore the change
takes place 'in a moment'--which is a strange expression, and seems to mean
change in no time. Which is true also of all the other changes, which
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