| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Maid Marian by Thomas Love Peacock: he therefore remained silent; and the lady and her escort, leaving him
and the sheriff to the care of the squire, rode on till they came
in sight of Arlingford Castle, when they parted in several directions.
The friar rode off alone; and after the foresters had lost sight of him
they heard his voice through the twilight, singing,--
A staff, a staff, of a young oak graff,
That is both stoure and stiff,
Is all a good friar can needs desire
To shrive a proud sheriffe.
And thou, fine fellowe, who hast tasted so
Of the forester's greenwood game,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Father Goriot by Honore de Balzac: If I chose, Nucingen would cover me with gold, but I would rather
weep on the breast of a man whom I can respect. Ah! tonight, M.
de Marsay will no longer have a right to think of me as a woman
whom he has paid." She tried to conceal her tears from him,
hiding her face in her hands; Eugene drew them away and looked at
her; she seemed to him sublime at that moment.
"It is hideous, is it not," she cried, "to speak in a breath of
money and affection. You cannot love me after this," she added.
The incongruity between the ideas of honor which make women so
great, and the errors in conduct which are forced upon them by
the constitution of society, had thrown Eugene's thoughts into
Father Goriot |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Philosophy 4 by Owen Wister: gentlemen felt easy. Quite so, they told him, and bade him feel easy
about his pay, for which they were, of course, responsible. Oscar
wished them good luck and watched them go to their desks with his Iittle
eyes, smiling in his particular manner. Then he dismissed them from his
mind, and sat with a faint remnant of his smile, fluently writing his
perfectly accurate answer to the first question upon the examination
paper.
Here is that paper. You will not be able to answer all the questions,
probably, but you may be glad to know what such things are like.
PHILOSOPHY 4
1. Thales, Zeno, Parmenides, Heracleitos, Anaxagoras. State briefly
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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 Pivot of Civilization by Margaret Sanger: of the endocrine glands, the layman is referred to a recently
published book by Dr. Louis Berman.[2] This authority reveals anew how
body and soul are bound up together in a complex unity. Our spiritual
and psychic difficulties cannot be solved until we have mastered the
knowledge of the wellsprings of our being. ``The chemistry of the
soul! Magnificent phrase!'' exclaims Dr. Berman. ``It's a long, long
way to that goal. The exact formula is as yet far beyond our reach.
But we have started upon the long journey, and we shall get there.
``The internal secretions constitute and determine much of the
inherited powers of the individual and their development. They
control physical and mental growth, and all the metabolic processes of
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