| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Alcibiades I by Plato: of the Helots, or of their horses, or of the animals which feed on the
Messenian pastures. But I have said enough of this: and as to gold and
silver, there is more of them in Lacedaemon than in all the rest of Hellas,
for during many generations gold has been always flowing in to them from
the whole Hellenic world, and often from the barbarian also, and never
going out, as in the fable of Aesop the fox said to the lion, 'The prints
of the feet of those going in are distinct enough;' but who ever saw the
trace of money going out of Lacedaemon? And therefore you may safely infer
that the inhabitants are the richest of the Hellenes in gold and silver,
and that their kings are the richest of them, for they have a larger share
of these things, and they have also a tribute paid to them which is very
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Twilight Land by Howard Pyle: a long time for all the world as though he were dead.
Now, it chanced that two fisherman were out with their nets that
night, and Luck or Fate led them by the way where the beggar lay
on the shore. "Halloa!" said one of the fishermen, "here is a
poor body drowned!" They turned him over, and then they saw what
rich clothes he wore, and felt that he had a purse in his pocket.
"Come," said the second fisherman, "he is dead, whoever he is.
His fine clothes and his purse of money can do him no good now,
and we might as well have them as anybody else." So between them
both they stripped the beggar of all that the king had given him,
and left him lying on the beach.
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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 Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll: And those that have whiskers, and scratch.
"For, although common Snarks do no manner of harm,
Yet, I feel it my duty to say,
Some are Boojums--" The Bellman broke off in alarm,
For the Baker had fainted away.
Fit the Third
THE BAKER'S TALE
They roused him with muffins--they roused him with ice--
They roused him with mustard and cress--
They roused him with jam and judicious advice--
They set him conundrums to guess.
The Hunting of the Snark |
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 Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers by Jonathan Swift: nurses and rockers dispensing caudle; or if they behold the
reverend prelates dressing the heads and airing the linnen at
court, I beg they will remember that these offices must be fill'd
with people of the greatest regularity, and best characters. For
the same reason, I am sorry that a certain prelate, who
notwithstanding his confinement (in December 1723), still
preserves his healthy, chearful countenance, cannot come in time
to be a nurse at court.
I likewise earnestly intreat the maids of honour, (then ensigns
and captains of the guard) that, at their first setting out, they
have some regard to their former station, and do not run wild
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