| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Puck of Pook's Hill by Rudyard Kipling: 'Once. 'Twas after he gave St Barnabas' the new chime
of bells. (Oh, there was nothing the Collinses, or the
Hayes, or the Fowles, or the Fenners would not do for the
church then! "Ask and have" was their song.) We had
rung 'em in, and he was in the tower with Black Nick
Fowle, that gave us our rood-screen. The old man
pinches the bell-rope one hand and scratches his neck
with t'other. "Sooner she was pulling yon clapper than
my neck, he says. That was all! That was Sussex
seely Sussex for everlasting'
'And what happened after?' said Una.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin: improvement, will naturally suffer most. And we have seen in the chapter
on the Struggle for Existence that it is the most closely-allied
forms,--varieties of the same species, and species of the same genus or of
related genera,--which, from having nearly the same structure,
constitution, and habits, generally come into the severest competition with
each other. Consequently, each new variety or species, during the progress
of its formation, will generally press hardest on its nearest kindred, and
tend to exterminate them. We see the same process of extermination amongst
our domesticated productions, through the selection of improved forms by
man. Many curious instances could be given showing how quickly new breeds
of cattle, sheep, and other animals, and varieties of flowers, take the
On the Origin of Species |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Pagan and Christian Creeds by Edward Carpenter: the conception of an undying Savior, and the realization
and distinct experience of some kind of Super-consciousness
which does certainly reside, more or less hidden, in the
deeps of the mind, and has been waiting through the
ages for its disclosure and recognition. Then again to the
recognition that in the sacrifices, the Slayer and the Slain
are one--the strange and profoundly mystic perception
that the God and the Victim are in essence the same--the
dedication of 'Himself to Himself'[2] and simultaneously
with this the interpretation of the Eucharist as meaning,
even for the individual, the participation in Eternal Life--
Pagan and Christian Creeds |
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 Timaeus by Plato: the other, they provided the body to be its vehicle and means of
locomotion; which consequently had length and was furnished with four limbs
extended and flexible; these God contrived to be instruments of locomotion
with which it might take hold and find support, and so be able to pass
through all places, carrying on high the dwelling-place of the most sacred
and divine part of us. Such was the origin of legs and hands, which for
this reason were attached to every man; and the gods, deeming the front
part of man to be more honourable and more fit to command than the hinder
part, made us to move mostly in a forward direction. Wherefore man must
needs have his front part unlike and distinguished from the rest of his
body.
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