| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Persuasion by Jane Austen: being in cash again. Give me joy: I have got rid of Sir Walter and Miss.
They are gone back to Kellynch, and almost made me swear to visit them
this summer; but my first visit to Kellynch will be with a surveyor,
to tell me how to bring it with best advantage to the hammer.
The baronet, nevertheless, is not unlikely to marry again;
he is quite fool enough. If he does, however, they will leave me in peace,
which may be a decent equivalent for the reversion. He is worse
than last year.
"I wish I had any name but Elliot. I am sick of it. The name of Walter
I can drop, thank God! and I desire you will never insult me
with my second W. again, meaning, for the rest of my life,
Persuasion |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard: larger part collected there to witness my murder.
Now we reached the top of the pyramid, two hours before midday, for
there were still many rites to be carried out ere the moment of
sacrifice. First I was led into the sanctuary of Tezcat, the god
whose name I bore. Here was his statue or idol, fashioned in black
marble and covered with golden ornaments. In the hand of this idol
was a shield of burnished gold on which its jewelled eyes were
fixed, reading there, as his priests fabled, all that passed upon
the earth he had created. Before him also was a plate of gold,
which with muttered invocations the head priest cleansed as I
watched, rubbing it with his long and matted locks. This done he
Montezuma's Daughter |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: 'All men,' reiterated Mr. Archer.
'Ay, that's a true word,' observed Old Cumberland, 'and a
thief, anyway, for it's a coward's trade.'
'But these fellows, now,' said Jonathan, with a curious,
appealing manner - 'these fellows with their seventy pounds!
Perhaps, Mr. Archer, they were no true thieves after all, but
just people who had been robbed and tried to get their own
again. What was that you said, about all England and the
taxes? One takes, another gives; why, that's almost fair.
If I've been rooked and robbed, and the coat taken off my
back, I call it almost fair to take another's.'
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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 Charmides by Plato: other, but a new beginning, partly artificial, partly arising out of the
questionings of the mind itself, and also receiving a stimulus from the
study of ancient writings.
Considering the great and fundamental differences which exist in ancient
and modern philosophy, it seems best that we should at first study them
separately, and seek for the interpretation of either, especially of the
ancient, from itself only, comparing the same author with himself and with
his contemporaries, and with the general state of thought and feeling
prevalent in his age. Afterwards comes the remoter light which they cast
on one another. We begin to feel that the ancients had the same thoughts
as ourselves, the same difficulties which characterize all periods of
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