| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Charmides by Plato: that the most effective use of Scripture phraseology arises out of the
application of it in a sense not intended by the author. (c) Another
caution: metaphors differ in different languages, and the translator will
often be compelled to substitute one for another, or to paraphrase them,
not giving word for word, but diffusing over several words the more
concentrated thought of the original. The Greek of Plato often goes beyond
the English in its imagery: compare Laws, (Greek); Rep.; etc. Or again the
modern word, which in substance is the nearest equivalent to the Greek, may
be found to include associations alien to Greek life: e.g. (Greek),
'jurymen,' (Greek), 'the bourgeoisie.' (d) The translator has also to
provide expressions for philosophical terms of very indefinite meaning in
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Outlaw of Torn by Edgar Rice Burroughs: de Tany, in the visions of their captain a great reward
and honor and preferment for the capture of the mighty
outlaw who was now almost within his clutches.
Three roads meet at Tany; one from the south along
which the King's soldiers were now riding; one from
the west which had guided Norman of Torn from his
camp to the castle; and a third which ran northwest
through Cambridge and Huntingdon toward Derby.
All unconscious of the rapidly approaching foes Nor-
man of Torn waited composedly in the anteroom for
Joan de Tany.
The Outlaw of Torn |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Where There's A Will by Mary Roberts Rinehart: this black velvet ribbon around my head?"
"It might have done twenty years ago, Miss Cobb," I answered,
"but I wouldn't advise it now." I was working at the slot-
machine, and I heard her sniff behind me as she hung up her
mirror on the window-frame.
She tried the curler on the curtain, which she knows I object to,
but she was too full of her subject to be sulky for long.
"I wish you could see Blanche Moody!" she began again, standing
holding the curler, with a thin wreath of smoke making a halo
over her head. "Drawn in--my dear, I don't see how she can
breathe! I guess there's no doubt about Mr. von Inwald."
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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 Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland by Olive Schreiner: "You've been in the wars, too, I see," said Peter, bending forward a
little, and looking at the stranger's feet. "By God! Both of them!--And
right through! You must have had a bad time of it?"
"It was very long ago," said the stranger.
Peter Halket threw two more logs on the fire. "Do you know," he said,
"I've been wondering ever since you came, who it was you reminded me of.
It's my mother! You're not like her in the face, but when your eyes look
at me it seems to me as if it was she looking at me. Curious, isn't it? I
don't know you from Adam, and you've hardly spoken a word since you came;
and yet I seem as if I'd known you all my life." Peter moved a little
nearer him. "I was awfully afraid of you when you first came; even when I
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