| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia by Samuel Johnson: who intended soon to have left this country, in which I am now to
be imprisoned for ever.' 'Whoever or whencesoever you are,'
returned the Arab, 'your dress and that of your servants show your
rank to be high and your wealth to be great. Why should you, who
can so easily procure your ransom, think yourself in danger of
perpetual captivity? The purpose of my incursions is to increase
my riches, or, more property, to gather tribute. The sons of
Ishmael are the natural and hereditary lords of this part of the
continent, which is usurped by late invaders and low-born tyrants,
from whom we are compelled to take by the sword what is denied to
justice. The violence of war admits no distinction: the lance
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lesser Hippias by Plato: on the ground of (2) length, (3) excellence, and (4) accordance with the
general spirit of his writings. Indeed the greater part of the evidence
for the genuineness of ancient Greek authors may be summed up under two
heads only: (1) excellence; and (2) uniformity of tradition--a kind of
evidence, which though in many cases sufficient, is of inferior value.
Proceeding upon these principles we appear to arrive at the conclusion that
nineteen-twentieths of all the writings which have ever been ascribed to
Plato, are undoubtedly genuine. There is another portion of them,
including the Epistles, the Epinomis, the dialogues rejected by the
ancients themselves, namely, the Axiochus, De justo, De virtute, Demodocus,
Sisyphus, Eryxias, which on grounds, both of internal and external
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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 O Pioneers! by Willa Cather: she was willing to be governed by the general
conviction that the more useless and utterly
unusable objects were, the greater their virtue
as ornament. That seemed reasonable enough.
Since she liked plain things herself, it was all
the more necessary to have jars and punch-
bowls and candlesticks in the company rooms
for people who did appreciate them. Her
guests liked to see about them these reassuring
emblems of prosperity.
O Pioneers! |
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 King of the Golden River by John Ruskin: like the waves of the angry sea and they cast long shadows which
flickered over Schwartz's path.
Then Schwartz climbed for another hour, and again his thirst
returned; and as he lifted his flask to his lips he thought he saw
his brother Hans lying exhausted on the path before him, and as he
gazed the figure stretched its arms to him and cried for water.
"Ha, ha!" laughed Schwartz, "are you there? Remember the prison
bars, my boy. Water, indeed! do you suppose I carried it all the
way up here for you?" And he strode over the figure; yet, as he
passed, he thought he saw a strange expression of mockery about its
lips. And when he had gone a few yards farther, he looked back; but
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