| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Breaking Point by Mary Roberts Rinehart: The torpor again overcame him and he slept in the saddle. When the
horse stopped he roused and kicked it on. Once he came up through
the blackness to the accompaniment of a great roaring, and found
that the animal was saddle deep in a ford, and floundering badly
among the rocks. He turned its head upstream, and got it out safely.
Toward dawn some of the confusion was gone, but he firmly fixed in
the past. The horse wandered on, head down, occasionally stopping
to seize a leaf as it passed, and once to drink deeply at a spring.
Dick was still not thinking - there was something that forbade him
to think-but he was weak and emotional. He muttered:
"Poor Bev! Poor old Bev!"
The Breaking Point |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Profits of Religion by Upton Sinclair: hypocrites. They have caught enough of the spirit of their time
not to enjoy having to pose as miracle-mongers, rain-makers and
witch-doctors; they would like to say frankly that they do not
believe that Jonah ever swallowed the whale, and even that they
are dubious about Hercules and Achilles and other demigods. But
they are part of a machine, and the old men and the rich men who
run the machine have laid down the law. Those who find themselves
tempted to think, remember suddenly that they have wives and
children; they have only one profession, they have been unfitted
for any other by a life-time of study of dead things, as well as
by the practice of altruism.
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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 Hiero by Xenophon: tyrants to partake. And first, let us examine with ourselves and see
if friendship is truly a great boon to mortal man.
How fares it with the man who is beloved of friends? See with what
gladness his friends and lovers hail his advent! delight to do him
kindness! long for him when he is absent from them![1] and welcome him
most gladly on his return![2] In any good which shall betide him they
rejoice together; or if they see him overtaken by misfortune, they
rush to his assistance as one man.[3]
[1] Reading {an ate}, or if {an apie}, transl. "have yearning hearts
when he must leave them."
[2] See Anton Rubinstein, "Die Musik and ihre Meister," p. 8, "Some
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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 Second Inaugural Address by Abraham Lincoln: of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress
of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known
to the public as to myself; and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory
and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction
in regard to it is ventured.
On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts
were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it--
all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered
from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war,
insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war--
seeking to dissolve the Union, and divide effects, by negotiation.
Second Inaugural Address |
