| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Republic by Plato: in the Politics. We should not interpret a Platonic dialogue any more than
a poem or a parable in too literal or matter-of-fact a style. On the other
hand, when we compare the lively fancy of Plato with the dried-up
abstractions of modern treatises on philosophy, we are compelled to say
with Protagoras, that the 'mythus is more interesting' (Protag.)
Several interesting remarks which in modern times would have a place in a
treatise on Political Economy are scattered up and down the writings of
Plato: especially Laws, Population; Free Trade; Adulteration; Wills and
Bequests; Begging; Eryxias, (though not Plato's), Value and Demand;
Republic, Division of Labour. The last subject, and also the origin of
Retail Trade, is treated with admirable lucidity in the second book of the
The Republic |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Secret Places of the Heart by H. G. Wells: good to me," she said, letting the tears have their way with
her.
"I am silly to cry," she said, dabbing her eyes.
"We will get it over to-morrow," he reassured her. "You need
not think of it again."
He took over Martin's brief note to Lady Hardy and set to
work by telegram to arrange for her visit. She was in London
at her Chelsea flat and easily accessible. She was to come to
the house at mid-day on the morrow, and to ask not for Lady
Hardy but for him. He would stay by her while she was in the
house, and it would be quite easy for Lady Hardy to keep
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Master and Man by Leo Tolstoy: last a match did burn up, and its flame lit up for a moment the
fur of his coat, his hand with the gold ring on the bent
forefinger, and the snow-sprinkled oat-straw that stuck out
from under the drugget. The cigarette lighted, he eagerly took
a whiff or two, inhaled the smoke, let it out through his
moustache, and would have inhaled again, but the wind tore off
the burning tobacco and whirled it away as it had done the
straw.
But even these few puffs had cheered him.
'If we must spend the night here, we must!' he said with
decision. 'Wait a bit, I'll arrange a flag as well,' he added,
Master and Man |
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 Call of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft: The press
cuttings, as I have intimated, touched on cases of panic, mania,
and eccentricity during the given period. Professor Angell must
have employed a cutting bureau, for the number of extracts was
tremendous, and the sources scattered throughout the globe. Here
was a nocturnal suicide in London, where a lone sleeper had leaped
from a window after a shocking cry. Here likewise a rambling letter
to the editor of a paper in South America, where a fanatic deduces
a dire future from visions he has seen. A dispatch from California
describes a theosophist colony as donning white robes en masse
for some "glorious fulfiment" which never arrives, whilst items
Call of Cthulhu |
