| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Rig Veda: with thy
help.
16 Together with all Gods, O fair-faced Agni, be seated first
upon the
woollined altar,
Nest-like, bedewed with oil. Bear this our worship to Savitar
who
sacrifices rightly.
17 Here the arranging priests, as did Atharvan, rub this Agni
forth,
Whom, not bewildered, as he moved in winding ways, they brought
The Rig Veda |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Ion by Plato: ION: There again you are right.
SOCRATES: Then you are the interpreters of interpreters?
ION: Precisely.
SOCRATES: I wish you would frankly tell me, Ion, what I am going to ask of
you: When you produce the greatest effect upon the audience in the
recitation of some striking passage, such as the apparition of Odysseus
leaping forth on the floor, recognized by the suitors and casting his
arrows at his feet, or the description of Achilles rushing at Hector, or
the sorrows of Andromache, Hecuba, or Priam,--are you in your right mind?
Are you not carried out of yourself, and does not your soul in an ecstasy
seem to be among the persons or places of which you are speaking, whether
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Ferragus by Honore de Balzac: and sacred,--women who inspire such reverence that love has need of
the help of a long familiarity to declare itself.
Auguste then gave himself up wholly to the delights of the deepest and
most moving of passions, to a love that was purely adoring.
Innumerable repressed desires there were, shadows of passion so vague
yet so profound, so fugitive and yet so actual, that one scarcely
knows to what we may compare them. They are like perfumes, or clouds,
or rays of the sun, or shadows, or whatever there is in nature that
shines for a moment and disappears, that springs to life and dies,
leaving in the heart long echoes of emotion. When the soul is young
enough to nurture melancholy and far-off hope, to find in woman more
Ferragus |
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 Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbot: almost imperceptibly induces the less perfect to modify
his or her vocal utterance so as to approximate to the more perfect.
And after many trials and many approximations, the result is
at last achieved. There comes a day at last, when, while the wonted
Marriage Chorus goes forth from universal Lineland, the three
far-off Lovers suddenly find themselves in exact harmony, and,
before they are awake, the wedded Triplet is rapt vocally
into a duplicate embrace; and Nature rejoices over one more marriage
and over three more births."
Section 14. How I vainly tried to explain the nature of Flatland
Thinking that it was time to bring down the Monarch from his raptures
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions |
