| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Unseen World and Other Essays by John Fiske: eyes the narrow but exalted problem of representing the beauty of
symmetry, they filled their sanctuaries and public places with
those grand motionless people of brass, gold, ivory, copper, and
marble, in whom humanity recognizes its highest artistic types.
Statuary was the central art of Greece. No other art was so
popular, or so completely expressed the national life. The number
of statues was enormous. In later days, when Rome had spoiled the
Greek world of its treasures, the Imperial City possessed a
population of statues almost equal in number to its population of
human beings. And at the present day, after all the destructive
accidents of so many intervening centuries, it is estimated that
The Unseen World and Other Essays |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lemorne Versus Huell by Elizabeth Drew Stoddard: me to write to her lawyer in New York. Something had turned up, he
had written her; the Uxbridges believed that they had ferreted out
what would go against her. I told her that I had met the Uxbridge
carriage.
"One of them is in New York; how else could they be giving me
trouble just now?"
"There was a gentleman on horseback beside the carriage."
"Did he look mean and cunning?"
"He did not wear his legal beaver up, I think; but he rode a fine
horse and sat it well."
"A lawyer on horseback should, like the beggar of the adage, ride
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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 Adam Bede by George Eliot: little more severe than usual on Jacob Storey's Z's, of which poor
Jacob had written a pageful, all with their tops turned the wrong
way, with a puzzled sense that they were not right "somehow." But
he observed in apology, that it was a letter you never wanted
hardly, and he thought it had only been there "to finish off th'
alphabet, like, though ampusand (&) would ha' done as well, for
what he could see."
At last the pupils had all taken their hats and said their "Good-
nights," and Adam, knowing his old master's habits, rose and said,
"Shall I put the candles out, Mr. Massey?"
"Yes, my boy, yes, all but this, which I'll carry into the house;
Adam Bede |
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 Phaedo by Plato: field of argument.
ECHECRATES: What followed?
PHAEDO: You shall hear, for I was close to him on his right hand, seated
on a sort of stool, and he on a couch which was a good deal higher. He
stroked my head, and pressed the hair upon my neck--he had a way of playing
with my hair; and then he said: To-morrow, Phaedo, I suppose that these
fair locks of yours will be severed.
Yes, Socrates, I suppose that they will, I replied.
Not so, if you will take my advice.
What shall I do with them? I said.
To-day, he replied, and not to-morrow, if this argument dies and we cannot
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