| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Crito by Plato: think that you have a right to do to us what we are doing to you. Would
you have any right to strike or revile or do any other evil to your father
or your master, if you had one, because you have been struck or reviled by
him, or received some other evil at his hands?--you would not say this?
And because we think right to destroy you, do you think that you have any
right to destroy us in return, and your country as far as in you lies?
Will you, O professor of true virtue, pretend that you are justified in
this? Has a philosopher like you failed to discover that our country is
more to be valued and higher and holier far than mother or father or any
ancestor, and more to be regarded in the eyes of the gods and of men of
understanding? also to be soothed, and gently and reverently entreated when
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Hermione's Little Group of Serious Thinkers by Don Marquis: Tramp poets lurch and swagger. Fothergil, being
a vers libre poet, a Prophet of the Virile, a Little
Brother of the Cosmic Urge, is compelled by what
his verse is to stride vigorously across rooms as if
they were vast desert places, in spite of what
his toes are. He strode magnificently, tri-
umphantly, to the window and flung the shade
up and looked out at the amorphous mist creep-
ing in across the roofs. The crawling fog must
have suggested his great, gray Dread, for presently
he turned away with a shudder and sank upon a
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Tarzan the Untamed by Edgar Rice Burroughs: them to their metal case, replaced the top and was about to
toss the little cylinder to the ground beside the mute remains
of its former possessor when some whim of curiosity unsatisfied
prompted him to slip it into the quiver with his arrows, though
as he did so it was with the grim thought that possibly cen-
turies hence it might again come to the sight of man beside
his own bleached bones.
And then, with a parting glance at the ancient skeleton, he
turned to the task of ascending the western wall of the canyon.
Slowly and with many rests he dragged his weakening body
upwards. Again and again he slipped back from sheer ex-
Tarzan the Untamed |
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 Manon Lescaut by Abbe Prevost: This speech produced its effect, he at once promised to take a
house for you and Manon, for you must know that you are the poor
little orphan. He undertook to set you up in furniture, and to
give you four hundred livres a month, which if I calculate
rightly, will amount to four thousand eight hundred per annum.
He left orders with his steward to look out for a house, and to
have it in readiness by the time he returned. You will soon,
therefore, again see Manon, who begged of me to give you a
thousand tender messages, and to assure you that she loves you
more dearly than ever.'
V
|
