| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Thus Spake Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche: the isles rich in fountains, where life reposeth under shady trees.
But his thirst doth not persuade him to become like those comfortable ones:
for where there are oases, there are also idols.
Hungry, fierce, lonesome, God-forsaken: so doth the lion-will wish itself.
Free from the happiness of slaves, redeemed from Deities and adorations,
fearless and fear-inspiring, grand and lonesome: so is the will of the
conscientious.
In the wilderness have ever dwelt the conscientious, the free spirits, as
lords of the wilderness; but in the cities dwell the well-foddered, famous
wise ones--the draught-beasts.
For, always, do they draw, as asses--the PEOPLE'S carts!
Thus Spake Zarathustra |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Mrs. Warren's Profession by George Bernard Shaw: would be just like me, you know. Your mother arranged that she
was to come down from London and that I was to come over from
Horsham to be introduced to you.
VIVIE [not at all pleased] Did she? Hm! My mother has rather a
trick of taking me by surprise--to see how I behave myself while
she's away, I suppose. I fancy I shall take my mother very much
by surprise one of these days, if she makes arrangements that
concern me without consulting me beforehand. She hasnt come.
PRAED [embarrassed] I'm really very sorry.
VIVIE [throwing off her displeasure] It's not your fault, Mr
Praed, is it? And I'm very glad youve come. You are the only
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: Bixiou. "Three places right under our noses, which will certainly be
given to some bloated favorite, some spy, some pious fraud,--to
Colleville perhaps, whose wife has ended where all pretty women end--
in piety."
Dutocq. "No, to YOU, my dear fellow, if you will only, for once in
your life, use your wits logically." [He stopped as if to study the
effect of his adverb in Bixiou's face.] "Come, let us play fair."
Bixiou [stolidly]. "Let me see your game."
Dutocq. "I don't wish to be anything more than under-head-clerk. I
know myself perfectly well, and I know I haven't the ability, like
you, to be head of a bureau. Du Bruel can be director, and you the
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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 Parmenides by Plato: difficulty arises out of the imperfection of language, and should therefore
be no longer regarded as a difficulty at all. The only way of meeting it,
if it exists, is to acknowledge that this rather puzzling double conception
is necessary to the expression of the phenomena of motion or change, and
that this and similar double notions, instead of being anomalies, are among
the higher and more potent instruments of human thought.
The processes by which Parmenides obtains his remarkable results may be
summed up as follows: (1) Compound or correlative ideas which involve each
other, such as, being and not-being, one and many, are conceived sometimes
in a state of composition, and sometimes of division: (2) The division or
distinction is sometimes heightened into total opposition, e.g. between one
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