| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Euthyphro by Plato: SOCRATES: It is loved because it is holy, not holy because it is loved?
EUTHYPHRO: Yes.
SOCRATES: And that which is dear to the gods is loved by them, and is in a
state to be loved of them because it is loved of them?
EUTHYPHRO: Certainly.
SOCRATES: Then that which is dear to the gods, Euthyphro, is not holy, nor
is that which is holy loved of God, as you affirm; but they are two
different things.
EUTHYPHRO: How do you mean, Socrates?
SOCRATES: I mean to say that the holy has been acknowledged by us to be
loved of God because it is holy, not to be holy because it is loved.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Padre Ignacio by Owen Wister: no longer hidden by the slouching position he had at first taken. "I
only noticed his clothes at first," thought the Padre. Restlessness was
plain upon the handsome brow, and violence was in the mouth; but Padre
Ignacio liked the eyes. "He is not saying any prayers," he surmised,
presently. "I doubt if he has said any for a long while. And he knows my
music. He is of educated people. He cannot be American. And now--yes, he
has taken--I think it must be a flower, from his pocket. I shall have him
to dine with me." And vespers ended with rosy clouds of eagerness
drifting across the Padre's brain.
II
But the stranger made his own beginning. As the priest came from the
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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 A House of Pomegranates by Oscar Wilde: crosses of gold, and then, in silver armour, with matchlocks and
pikes, came the soldiers, and in their midst walked three
barefooted men, in strange yellow dresses painted all over with
wonderful figures, and carrying lighted candles in their hands.
Certainly there was a great deal to look at in the forest, and when
she was tired he would find a soft bank of moss for her, or carry
her in his arms, for he was very strong, though he knew that he was
not tall. He would make her a necklace of red bryony berries, that
would be quite as pretty as the white berries that she wore on her
dress, and when she was tired of them, she could throw them away,
and he would find her others. He would bring her acorn-cups and
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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 In the Cage by Henry James: sure of whom it was, in Eaten Square, that he was perpetually
wiring to--and all so irreproachably!--as Lady Bradeen. Lady
Bradeen was Cissy, Lady Bradeen was Mary, Lady Bradeen was the
friend of Fritz and of Gussy, the customer of Marguerite, and the
close ally in short (as was ideally right, only the girl had not
yet found a descriptive term that was) of the most magnificent of
men. Nothing could equal the frequency and variety of his
communications to her ladyship but their extraordinary, their
abysmal propriety. It was just the talk--so profuse sometimes that
she wondered what was left for their real meetings--of the very
happiest people. Their real meetings must have been constant, for
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