| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin: to us, whom he had met in the street inquiring for a printer.
All our cash was now expended in the variety of particulars we
had been obliged to procure, and this countryman's five shillings,
being our first-fruits, and coming so seasonably, gave me more pleasure
than any crown I have since earned; and the gratitude I felt toward
House has made me often more ready than perhaps I should otherwise
have been to assist young beginners.
There are croakers in every country, always boding its ruin.
Such a one then lived in Philadelphia; a person of note, an elderly man,
with a wise look and a very grave manner of speaking; his name
was Samuel Mickle. This gentleman, a stranger to me, stopt one day
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Men of Iron by Howard Pyle: look so strange. Thereupon those who had been too troubled before
to notice him, bethought themselves of him, and sent him to bed,
rebellious at having to go so early.
He remembered how the next morning, looking out of a window high
up under the eaves, he saw a great troop of horsemen come riding
into the courtyard beneath, where a powdering of snow had
whitened everything, and of how the leader, a knight clad in
black armor, dismounted and entered the great hall door-way
below, followed by several of the band.
He remembered how some of the castle women were standing in a
frightened group upon the landing of the stairs, talking together
Men of Iron |
| 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 Tribal order rises to Humanity; love ascends from the
lingam to yogam, from physical union alone to the union
with the Whole--which of course includes physical and all
other kinds of union. No wonder that the good St. Paul,
witnessing that extraordinary whirlpool of beliefs and practices,
new and old, there in the first century A.D.--the unabashed
adoration of sex side by side with the transcendental
devotions of the Vedic sages and the Gnostics--became
somewhat confused himself and even a little violent, scolding
his disciples (I Cor. x. 21) for their undiscriminating
acceptance, as it seemed to him, of things utterly alien and
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 Historical Lecturers and Essays by Charles Kingsley: His profligate career seems to have brought its own punishment. To
the scandal of his father, who tolerated no one's vices save his
own, as well as to the scandal of the university authorities of
Alcala, he has been scouring the streets at the head of the most
profligate students, insulting women, even ladies of rank, and
amenable only to his lovely young stepmother, Elizabeth of Valois,
Isabel de la Paz, as the Spaniards call her, the daughter of
Catherine do Medicis, and sister of the King of France. Don Carlos
should have married her, had not his worthy father found it more
advantageous for the crown of Spain, as well as more pleasant for
him, Philip, to marry her himself. Whence came heart-burnings,
|
