| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift: I think it is agreed by all parties, that this prodigious number
of children in the arms, or on the backs, or at the heels of
their mothers, and frequently of their fathers, is in the present
deplorable state of the kingdom, a very great additional
grievance; and therefore whoever could find out a fair, cheap and
easy method of making these children sound and useful members of
the common-wealth, would deserve so well of the publick, as to
have his statue set up for a preserver of the nation.
But my intention is very far from being confined to provide only
for the children of professed beggars: it is of a much greater
extent, and shall take in the whole number of infants at a
A Modest Proposal |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Charmides and Other Poems by Oscar Wilde: She feared his lips upon her lips would never care to feed,
And cried, 'Awake, already the pale moon
Washes the trees with silver, and the wave
Creeps grey and chilly up this sandy dune,
The croaking frogs are out, and from the cave
The nightjar shrieks, the fluttering bats repass,
And the brown stoat with hollow flanks creeps through the dusky
grass.
Nay, though thou art a god, be not so coy,
For in yon stream there is a little reed
That often whispers how a lovely boy
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: it FLUNEC, but ours is esteemed the better sort,) which is very
diuretic. By the luckiest chance in the world, I had not
discharged myself of any part of it. The heat I had contracted
by coming very near the flames, and by labouring to quench them,
made the wine begin to operate by urine; which I voided in such a
quantity, and applied so well to the proper places, that in three
minutes the fire was wholly extinguished, and the rest of that
noble pile, which had cost so many ages in erecting, preserved
from destruction.
It was now day-light, and I returned to my house without waiting
to congratulate with the emperor: because, although I had done a
Gulliver's Travels |
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 Agesilaus by Xenophon: your king be detected plotting, let him not think to find a friend in
me. No, not if he sends me a thousand letters." For my part, then, I
hold it praiseworthy that, by comparison with pleasing his fellow-
Hellenes, Agesilaus scorned such friendship. And this, too, among his
tenets I find admirable: the truer title to self-congratulation
belonged not to the millionaire, the master of many legions, but to
him rather, who, being himself a better man, commanded the allegience
of better followers.
[4] See "Hell." IV. i. 15; Plut. "Apophth. Lac." p. 777; Grote, "H.
G." x. 402.
And this, in proof of mental forecast, I must needs praise in him.
|
