| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Amy Foster by Joseph Conrad: heavy men a being lithe, supple, and long-limbed,
straight like a pine with something striving up-
wards in his appearance as though the heart with-
in him had been buoyant. Perhaps it was only the
force of the contrast, but when he was passing one
of these villagers here, the soles of his feet did not
seem to me to touch the dust of the road. He
vaulted over the stiles, paced these slopes with a
long elastic stride that made him noticeable at a
great distance, and had lustrous black eyes. He
was so different from the mankind around that,
Amy Foster |
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 Gorgias by Plato: undefiled to the judge in that day; my desire in life is to be able to meet
death. And I exhort you, and retort upon you the reproach which you cast
upon me,--that you will stand before the judge, gaping, and with dizzy
brain, and any one may box you on the ear, and do you all manner of evil.
Perhaps you think that this is an old wives' fable. But you, who are the
three wisest men in Hellas, have nothing better to say, and no one will
ever show that to do is better than to suffer evil. A man should study to
be, and not merely to seem. If he is bad, he should become good, and avoid
all flattery, whether of the many or of the few.
Follow me, then; and if you are looked down upon, that will do you no harm.
And when we have practised virtue, we will betake ourselves to politics,
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