| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Gorgias by Plato: good; for, if this be true, then the disagreeable consequences which have
been darkly intimated must follow, and many others.
CALLICLES: That, Socrates, is only your opinion.
SOCRATES: And do you, Callicles, seriously maintain what you are saying?
CALLICLES: Indeed I do.
SOCRATES: Then, as you are in earnest, shall we proceed with the argument?
CALLICLES: By all means. (Or, 'I am in profound earnest.')
SOCRATES: Well, if you are willing to proceed, determine this question for
me:--There is something, I presume, which you would call knowledge?
CALLICLES: There is.
SOCRATES: And were you not saying just now, that some courage implied
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Parmenides by Plato: highest degree unlike. And all other opposites might without difficulty be
shown to unite in them.
1.bb. Once more, leaving all this: Is there not also an opposite series
of consequences which is equally true of the others, and may be deduced
from the existence of one? There is. One is distinct from the others, and
the others from one; for one and the others are all things, and there is no
third existence besides them. And the whole of one cannot be in others nor
parts of it, for it is separated from others and has no parts, and
therefore the others have no unity, nor plurality, nor duality, nor any
other number, nor any opposition or distinction, such as likeness and
unlikeness, some and other, generation and corruption, odd and even. For
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Legend of Montrose by Walter Scott: the mountaineer was to lay his hand on the soldier's arm, and
point backward in the direction of the wind. Dalgetty could spy
nothing, for evening was closing fast, and they were at the
bottom of a dark ravine. But at length he could distinctly hear
at a distance the sullen toll of a large bell.
"That," said he, "must be the alarm--the storm-clock, as the
Germans call it."
"It strikes the hour of your death," answered Ranald, "unless you
can accompany me a little farther. For every toll of that bell a
brave man has yielded up his soul."
"Truly, Ranald, my trusty friend," said Dalgetty, "I will not
|
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 Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: The windows of the room had before been darkened, and I felt a kind of panic
on seeing the pale yellow light of the moon illuminate the chamber.
The shutters had been thrown back, and with a sensation of horror
not to be described, I saw at the open window a figure the most hideous
and abhorred. A grin was on the face of the monster; he seemed to jeer,
as with his fiendish finger he pointed towards the corpse of my wife.
I rushed towards the window, and drawing a pistol from my bosom,
fired; but he eluded me, leaped from his station, and running with
the swiftness of lightning, plunged into the lake.
The report of the pistol brought a crowd into the room. I pointed
to the spot where he had disappeared, and we followed the track
Frankenstein |
