| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Finished by H. Rider Haggard: the fellow to justice. Moreover there was nothing to show that
he was guilty; his whole manner seemed to point another way,
though of course he might be acting.
"Very well," I replied, "but return as quickly as possible."
He stood for a few seconds like a man who is dazed. It occurred
to me that it might have come into his mind with Marnham's death
that he had lost his hold over Heda. But if so he said nothing
of it, but only asked--
"Will you go instead of me?"
"On the whole I think not," I replied, "and if I did, the story I
should have to tell might not tend to your advantage.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy: before, and had come back to her former state of exasperation,
she was horrified at herself. "Can it be impossible? Can it be
beyond me to control myself?" she said to herself, and began
again from the beginning. "He's truthful, he's honest, he loves
me. I love him, and in a few days the divorce will come. What
more do I want? I want peace of mind and trust, and I will take
the blame on myself. Yes, now when he comes in, I will tell him I
was wrong, though I was not wrong, and we will go away
to-morrow."
And to escape thinking any more, and being overcome by
irritability, she rang, and ordered the boxes to be brought up
Anna Karenina |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from King James Bible: JOB 22:12 Is not God in the height of heaven? and behold the height of
the stars, how high they are!
JOB 22:13 And thou sayest, How doth God know? can he judge through the
dark cloud?
JOB 22:14 Thick clouds are a covering to him, that he seeth not; and he
walketh in the circuit of heaven.
JOB 22:15 Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men have trodden?
JOB 22:16 Which were cut down out of time, whose foundation was
overflown with a flood:
JOB 22:17 Which said unto God, Depart from us: and what can the
Almighty do for them?
King James Bible |
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 Timaeus by Plato: aware that an ancient philosopher is to be interpreted from himself and by
the contemporary history of thought. We know that mysticism is not
criticism. The fancies of the Neo-Platonists are only interesting to us
because they exhibit a phase of the human mind which prevailed widely in
the first centuries of the Christian era, and is not wholly extinct in our
own day. But they have nothing to do with the interpretation of Plato, and
in spirit they are opposed to him. They are the feeble expression of an
age which has lost the power not only of creating great works, but of
understanding them. They are the spurious birth of a marriage between
philosophy and tradition, between Hellas and the East--(Greek) (Rep.).
Whereas the so-called mysticism of Plato is purely Greek, arising out of
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