| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Crito by Plato: argument about the opinions of men?--we were saying that some of them are
to be regarded, and others not. Now were we right in maintaining this
before I was condemned? And has the argument which was once good now
proved to be talk for the sake of talking--mere childish nonsense? That is
what I want to consider with your help, Crito:--whether, under my present
circumstances, the argument appears to be in any way different or not; and
is to be allowed by me or disallowed. That argument, which, as I believe,
is maintained by many persons of authority, was to the effect, as I was
saying, that the opinions of some men are to be regarded, and of other men
not to be regarded. Now you, Crito, are not going to die to-morrow--at
least, there is no human probability of this, and therefore you are
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas: the shoulder of the Duke of Buckingham; it was you had the
Madame Bonacieux carried off; it was you who, in love with
De Wardes and thinking to pass the night with him, opened
the door to Monsieur d'Artagnan; it was you who, believing
that De Wardes had deceived you, wished to have him killed
by his rival; it was you who, when this rival had discovered
your infamous secret, wished to have him killed in his turn
by two assassins, whom you sent in pursuit of him; it was
you who, finding the balls had missed their mark, sent
poisoned wine with a forged letter, to make your victim
believe that the wine came from his friends. In short, it
The Three Musketeers |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Woman and Labour by Olive Schreiner: prohibited or hampered in his labour as an educator of infancy, on the
ground that infantile instruction was the field of the female; that one
female with gifts in the direction of state administration, should be
compelled to instruct an infants' school, perhaps without the slightest
gift for so doing, is a running to waste of social life-blood.
Free trade in labour and equality of training, intellectual or physical, is
essential if the organic aptitudes of a sex or class are to be determined.
And our demand today is that natural conditions, inexorably, but
beneficently, may determine the labours of each individual, and not
artificial restrictions.
As there is no need to legislate that Hindus, being generally supposed to
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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 Master and Man by Leo Tolstoy: anything more in this world.
All around the snow still eddied. The same whirlwinds of snow
circled about, covering the dead Vasili Andreevich's fur coat,
the shivering Mukhorty, the sledge, now scarcely to be seen,
and Nikita lying at the bottom of it, kept warm beneath his
dead master.
X
Nikita awoke before daybreak. He was aroused by the cold that
had begun to creep down his back. He had dreamt that he was
coming from the mill with a load of his master's flour and when
crossing the stream had missed the bridge and let the cart get
Master and Man |
