| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Aeneid by Virgil: Sev'n youths from Athens yearly sent, to meet
The fate appointed by revengeful Crete.
And next to those the dreadful urn was plac'd,
In which the destin'd names by lots were cast:
The mournful parents stand around in tears,
And rising Crete against their shore appears.
There too, in living sculpture, might be seen
The mad affection of the Cretan queen;
Then how she cheats her bellowing lover's eye;
The rushing leap, the doubtful progeny,
The lower part a beast, a man above,
Aeneid |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Camille by Alexandre Dumas: for Marguerite, she was already in her white dressing-gown. We
sat down to table.
Charm, sweetness, spontaneity, Marguerite had them all, and I was
forced from time to time to admit that I had no right to ask of
her anything else; that many people would be very happy to be in
my place; and that, like Virgil's shepherd, I had only to enjoy
the pleasures that a god, or rather a goddess, set before me.
I tried to put in practice the theories of Prudence, and to be as
gay as my two companions; but what was natural in them was on my
part an effort, and the nervous laughter, whose source they did
not detect, was nearer to tears than to mirth.
Camille |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle: "Why," quoth Robin, "I came this morning from sleeping overnight in Sherwood."
"Is it even so?" said the Deaf man. "I would not for all the money we four
are carrying to Lincoln Town sleep one night in Sherwood. If Robin Hood
caught one of our trade in his woodlands he would, methinks, clip his ears."
"Methinks he would, too," quoth Robin, laughing. "But what money
is this that ye speak of?"
Then up spake the Lame man. "Our king, Peter of York," said he,
"hath sent us to Lincoln with those moneys that--"
"Stay, brother Hodge," quoth the Blind man, breaking into the talk,
"I would not doubt our brother here, but bear in mind we know him not.
What art thou, brother? Upright-man, Jurkman, Clapper-dudgeon, Dommerer,
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood |
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 The Symposium by Xenophon: [57] See Plat. "Phaedr." 255 C; Cic. "Tusc." i. 26, "nec Homerum audio
. . . divina mallem ad nos," a protest against anthropomorphism in
religion.
[58] Not in "our" version of Homer, but cf. "Il." xx. 405, {ganutai de
te tois 'Enosikhthon}; "Il." xiii. 493, {ganutai d' ara te phrena
poimen}.
And again, in another passage he says:
Knowing deep devices ({medea}) in his mind,[59]
which is as much as to say, "knowing wise counsels in his mind."
Ganymede, therefore, bears a name compounded of the two words, "joy"
and "counsel," and is honoured among the gods, not as one "whose
The Symposium |
