| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Meno by Plato: if you would only stay and be initiated, and were not compelled, as you
said yesterday, to go away before the mysteries.
MENO: But I will stay, Socrates, if you will give me many such answers.
SOCRATES: Well then, for my own sake as well as for yours, I will do my
very best; but I am afraid that I shall not be able to give you very many
as good: and now, in your turn, you are to fulfil your promise, and tell
me what virtue is in the universal; and do not make a singular into a
plural, as the facetious say of those who break a thing, but deliver virtue
to me whole and sound, and not broken into a number of pieces: I have
given you the pattern.
MENO: Well then, Socrates, virtue, as I take it, is when he, who desires
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Poor and Proud by Oliver Optic: As she passed down Washington Street, she stopped before the
store of Sands & Co., for she wanted to see Master Simon Sneed.
She did not like to enter the store; so she waited on the
sidewalk for half an hour, hoping he would come out. As he did
not appear, her impatience would not permit her to lose any more
time, and she timidly opened the door, and inquired of the first
salesman she saw if Mister Sneed was in.
"Mister Sneed!" laughed the clerk. "Here, Simon, is one of your
friends. Wait upon her."
Simon, with a flushed cheek, came to the door. He was horrified
at the insinuation of the salesman and wished Katy had been on
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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 Koran: yourselves of good ye will find it with God. It is better and a
greater hire; and ask ye pardon of God: verily, God is forgiving,
merciful!
THE CHAPTER OF THE 'COVERED'
(LXXIV. Mecca.)
IN the name of the merciful and compassionate God.
O thou who art covered! rise up and warn!
And thy Lord magnify!
And thy garments purify!
And abomination shun!
And grant not favours to gain increase!
The Koran |
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 Pocket Diary Found in the Snow by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: Asta's death. I would have seen the official notice and the call
for heirs in Australia, and would have written from there, announcing
that I was still alive. If you had come several days later I should
have been a rich man within a year."
His clenched fist resting on his knee, the rascal stared out ahead
of him when he ended his shameless confession. In his rage and
disappointment he had not noticed that Muller's hand dropped gently
to the desk and softly took a little bottle from under the
handkerchief. Langen came out of his dark thoughts only when
Muller's voice broke the silence. "But you miscalculated, if you
expected to inherit from your sister. She is still a minor and
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