| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Memorabilia by Xenophon: Thirty and associated with Charicles as their official lawgiver,[17]
he framed the law against teaching the art of words[18] merely from a
desire to vilify Socrates. He was at a loss to know how else to lay
hold of him except by levelling against him the vulgar charge[19]
against philosophers, by which he hoped to prejudice him with the
public. It was a charge quite unfounded as regards Socrates, if I may
judge from anything I ever heard fall from his lips myself or have
learnt about him from others. But the animus of Critias was clear. At
the time when the Thirty were putting citizens, highly respectable
citizens, to death wholesale, and when they were egging on one man
after another to the commission of crime, Socrates let fall an
The Memorabilia |
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 Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy: neighbors. They were surprised at the cordial greetings which
they everywhere received, and, returning to the ruler of
Tarakania, they said: "We cannot fight with these people--take us
to another place. We would much prefer the dangers of actual
warfare to this unsoldierly method of subduing the village."
The Tarakanian ruler, becoming enraged, ordered the soldiers to
destroy the whole kingdom, plunder the villages, burn the houses
and provisions, and slaughter the cattle.
"Should you disobey my orders," said he, "I will have every one
of you executed."
The soldiers, becoming frightened, started to do as they were
The Kreutzer Sonata |
