| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe: again. Here, I say, the devil put me upon killing the child in
the dark alley, that it might not cry, but the very thought
frighted me so that I was ready to drop down; but I turned the
child about and bade it go back again, for that was not its way
home. The child said, so she would, and I went through into
Bartholomew Close, and then turned round to another passage
that goes into St. John Street; then, crossing into Smithfield,
went down Chick Lane and into Field Lane to Holborn Bridge,
when, mixing with the crowd of people usually passing there,
it was not possible to have been found out; and thus I
enterprised my second sally into the world.
Moll Flanders |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum: freeing them, you will yourself become enchanted, and transformed into
an article of bric-a-brac or an ornament. This is only fair and just,
and is the risk you declared you were willing to take."
12. The Eleven Guesses
Hearing this condition imposed by the Nome King, Ozma became silent
and thoughtful, and all her friends looked at her uneasily.
"Don't you do it!" exclaimed Dorothy. "If you guess wrong, you will
be enslaved yourself."
"But I shall have eleven guesses," answered Ozma. "Surely I ought to
guess one object in eleven correctly; and, if I do, I shall rescue one
of the royal family and be safe myself. Then the rest of you may
Ozma of Oz |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Alexandria and her Schools by Charles Kingsley: belief in the minds of succeeding generations. They had destroyed the
good with the evil, and they paid the penalty of their undistinguishing
wrath. In sweeping away the idolatries and fetish worships of the
Syrian Catholics, the Mussulmans had swept away also that doctrine which
alone can deliver men from idolatry and fetish worships--if not outward
and material ones, yet the still more subtle, and therefore more
dangerous idolatries of the intellect. For they had swept away the
belief in the Logos; in a divine teacher of every human soul, who was,
in some mysterious way, the pattern and antitype of human virtue and
wisdom. And more, they had swept away that belief in the incarnation of
the Logos, which alone can make man feel that his divine teacher is one
|
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 Symposium by Xenophon: [47] {an periepoito}. "He will be scurvily treated." Cf. "Hell." III.
i. 19.
[48] Cf. "Mem." I. ii. 29.
If my language has a touch of turbulence,[49] do not marvel: partly
the wine exalts me; partly that love which ever dwells within my heart
of hearts now pricks me forward to use great boldness of speech[50]
against his base antagonist. Why, yes indeed, it seems to me that he
who fixes his mind on outward beauty is like a man who has taken a
farm on a short lease. He shows no anxiety to improve its value; his
sole object being to take off it the largest crops he can himself. But
he whose heart is set on loyal friendship resembles rather a man who
The Symposium |
