| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lysis by Plato: a deficiency of knowledge; and whenever your father thinks that you are
wiser than he is, he will instantly commit himself and his possessions to
you.
I think so.
Aye, I said; and about your neighbour, too, does not the same rule hold as
about your father? If he is satisfied that you know more of housekeeping
than he does, will he continue to administer his affairs himself, or will
he commit them to you?
I think that he will commit them to me.
Will not the Athenian people, too, entrust their affairs to you when they
see that you have wisdom enough to manage them?
Lysis |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Lamentable Tragedy of Locrine and Mucedorus by William Shakespeare: HUMBER.
O vita misero longa, foelici brevis,
Eheu! malorum fames extremum malum.
Long have I lived in this desert cave,
With eating haws and miserable roots,
Devouring leaves and beastly excrements.
Caves were my beds, and stones my pillow-bears,
Fear was my sleep, and horror was my dream,
For still me thought, at every boisterous blast,
Now Locrine comes, now, Humber, thou must die:
So that for fear and hunger, Humber's mind
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Shadow out of Time by H. P. Lovecraft: elsewhere so dominant.
The relatively easy walking from this
point onward went curiously to my head. All the frantic eagerness
hitherto frustrated by obstacles now took itself out in a kind
of febrile speed, and I literally raced along the low-roofed,
monstrously well-remembered aisles beyond the archway.
I was
past being astonished by the familiarity of what I saw. On every
hand the great hieroglyphed metal shelf-doors loomed monstrously;
some yet in place, others sprung open, and still others bent and
buckled under bygone geological stresses not quite strong enough
Shadow out of Time |
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 Market-Place by Harold Frederic: stand in their light. They've been spoiled for my kind
of life as it is."
"I'll do things for everybody," he affirmed roundly.
"Let's see--how old is Alfred?"
"He'll be twenty in May--and Julia is fourteen months
older than he is."
"Gad!" was Thorpe's meditative comment. "How they shoot
up! Why I was thinking she was a little girl." "She never
will be tall, I'm afraid," said the literal mother.
"She favours her father's family. But Alfred is more
of a Thorpe. I'm sorry you missed seeing them last
The Market-Place |
