| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Phaedo by Plato: at an absolute equality of which they fall short?
Yes.
Then before we began to see or hear or perceive in any way, we must have
had a knowledge of absolute equality, or we could not have referred to that
standard the equals which are derived from the senses?--for to that they
all aspire, and of that they fall short.
No other inference can be drawn from the previous statements.
And did we not see and hear and have the use of our other senses as soon as
we were born?
Certainly.
Then we must have acquired the knowledge of equality at some previous time?
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Woman and Labour by Olive Schreiner: ever:--that, if the parasite woman on her couch, loaded with gewgaws, the
plaything and amusement of man, be the permanent and final manifestation of
female human life on the globe, then that couch is also the death-bed of
human evolution. These profound underlying truths, perhaps, not one woman
in twenty thousand of those actively engaged in the struggle for
readjustment has so closely and keenly grasped that she can readily throw
them into the form of exact language; and yet, probably, not the feeblest
woman taking share in our endeavour toward readjustment and expansion fails
to be animated by a vague but profound consciousness of their existence.
Beyond the small evils, which she seeks by her immediate, personal action
to remedy, lie, she feels; large ills of which they form but an off-shoot;
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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 The Hated Son by Honore de Balzac: noisily toward him, as if to invite him to sit down, as he did himself
by the bedside; then he said to his wife in a specious voice:--
"Well, my pretty one, so we have a son; this is a joyful thing for us.
Do you suffer much?"
"No," murmured the countess.
The evident surprise of the mother, and the tardy demonstrations of
pleasure on the part of the father, convinced Beauvouloir that there
was some incident behind all this which escaped his penetration. He
persisted in his suspicion, and rested his hand on that of the young
wife, less to watch her condition than to convey to her some advice.
"The skin is good, I fear nothing for madame. The milk fever will
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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 Dream Life and Real Life by Olive Schreiner: know there will be spring; as surely as the birds know it when they see
above the snow two tiny, quivering green leaves. Spring cannot fail us.
There were other flowers in the box once; a bunch of white acacia flowers,
gathered by the strong hand of a man, as we passed down a village street on
a sultry afternoon, when it had rained, and the drops fell on us from the
leaves of the acacia trees. The flowers were damp; they made mildew marks
on the paper I folded them in. After many years I threw them away. There
is nothing of them left in the box now, but a faint, strong smell of dried
acacia, that recalls that sultry summer afternoon; but the rose is in the
box still.
It is many years ago now; I was a girl of fifteen, and I went to visit in a
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