| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Emma by Jane Austen: "There is one subject," he replied, "I hope but one, on which
we do not think alike." He paused a moment, again smiling,
with his eyes fixed on her face. "Does nothing occur to you?--
Do not you recollect?--Harriet Smith."
Her cheeks flushed at the name, and she felt afraid of something,
though she knew not what.
"Have you heard from her yourself this morning?" cried he.
"You have, I believe, and know the whole."
"No, I have not; I know nothing; pray tell me."
"You are prepared for the worst, I see--and very bad it is.
Harriet Smith marries Robert Martin."
Emma |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Cratylus by Plato: that falsehood may be spoken but not said?
CRATYLUS: Neither spoken nor said.
SOCRATES: Nor uttered nor addressed? For example: If a person, saluting
you in a foreign country, were to take your hand and say: 'Hail, Athenian
stranger, Hermogenes, son of Smicrion'--these words, whether spoken, said,
uttered, or addressed, would have no application to you but only to our
friend Hermogenes, or perhaps to nobody at all?
CRATYLUS: In my opinion, Socrates, the speaker would only be talking
nonsense.
SOCRATES: Well, but that will be quite enough for me, if you will tell me
whether the nonsense would be true or false, or partly true and partly
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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 Enemies of Books by William Blades: is that narrated by St. Luke, when, after the preaching of Paul,
many of the Ephesians "which used curious arts brought their
books together, and burned them before all men: and they
counted the price of them, and found it 50,000 pieces of silver"
(Acts xix, 19). Doubtless these books of idolatrous divination
and alchemy, of enchantments and witchcraft, were righteously
destroyed by those to whom they had been and might again be
spiritually injurious; and doubtless had they escaped the fire then,
not one of them would have survived to the present time, no MS.
of that age being now extant. Nevertheless, I must confess
to a certain amount of mental disquietude and uneasiness when I
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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 The Sportsman by Xenophon: and in that he greatly enlarged the boundaries of his fatherland, is
still to-day the wonder of mankind.[25]
[24] See "Mem." II. i. 14; III. v. 10; cf. Isocr. "Phil." 111; Plut.
"Thes." x. foll.; Diod. iv. 59; Ov. "Met." vii. 433.
[25] Or, "is held in admiration still to-day." See Thuc. ii. 15;
Strab. ix. 397.
Hippolytus[26] was honoured by our lady Artemis and with her
conversed,[27] and in his latter end, by reason of his sobriety and
holiness, was reckoned among the blest.
[26] See the play of Euripides. Paus. i. 22; Diod. iv. 62.
[27] Al. "lived on the lips of men." But cf. Eur. "Hipp." 85, {soi kai
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