| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Euthyphro by Plato: they really true?' 'Yes, they are;' and Euthyphro will gladly tell
Socrates some more of them. But Socrates would like first of all to have a
more satisfactory answer to the question, 'What is piety?' 'Doing as I do,
charging a father with murder,' may be a single instance of piety, but can
hardly be regarded as a general definition.
Euthyphro replies, that 'Piety is what is dear to the gods, and impiety is
what is not dear to them.' But may there not be differences of opinion, as
among men, so also among the gods? Especially, about good and evil, which
have no fixed rule; and these are precisely the sort of differences which
give rise to quarrels. And therefore what may be dear to one god may not
be dear to another, and the same action may be both pious and impious; e.g.
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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 Pool of Blood in the Pastor's Study by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: when you accompany them, I suppose?"
"Oh, no; the attendants take them out sometimes. I prefer, however,
to let them go only with Gyuri, for I can depend upon him more than
upon any of the others."
"Then he and Cardillac have been out together occasionally?"
"Oh, yes, quite frequently. But - pardon me - this is almost like
a cross-examination."
"I beg your pardon, doctor, it's a bad habit of mine. One gets so
accustomed to it in my profession."
"What is it you want?" asked Doctor Orszay, turning to a
fine-looking young man of superb build, who entered just then and
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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 The Lone Star Ranger by Zane Grey: exercised such keen observation that in the future he would
know whatever might be of service to him if he chanced that way
again.
The rough, wild, brush-covered slope down from the foothills
gradually leveled out into plain, a magnificent grazing
country, upon which till noon of that day Duane did not see a
herd of cattle or a ranch. About that time he made out smoke
from the railroad, and after a couple of hours' riding he
entered a town which inquiry discovered to be Bradford. It was
the largest town he had visited since Marfa, and he calculated
must have a thousand or fifteen hundred inhabitants, not
The Lone Star Ranger |
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 Mistress Wilding by Rafael Sabatini: bade him see to their horses. The fellow endeavoured to swing himself
free of the other's tenacious grasp.
"Let me go," he cried. "I am for the Duke!"
"And so are we, my fine rebel," answered Trenchard, holding fast.
"Let me go," the lout insisted. "I am going to enlist."
"And so you shall when you have stabled our nags. See to him,
Vallancey; he is brainsick with the fumes of war."
The fellow protested, but Trenchard's way was brisk and short; and so,
protesting still, he led away their cattle in the end, Vallancey going
with him to see that he performed this last duty as a stable-boy ere he
too became a champion militant of the Protestant Cause. Trenchard sped
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