| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Child of Storm by H. Rider Haggard: people do who are parting before a journey, while two others discussed
in a low voice the possibility of our wiping out most of the Usutu
before we were wiped out ourselves.
"It depends," said one of them, "whether they attack us regiment by
regiment or all together, as they will do if they are wise."
Then an officer bade them be silent, and conversation ceased. Maputa
passed through the ranks giving orders to the captains. From a distance
his withered old body, with a fighting shield held in front of it,
looked like that of a huge black ant carrying something in its mouth.
He came to where Scowl and I sat upon our horses.
"Ah! I see that you are ready, Macumazahn," he said in a cheerful voice.
Child of Storm |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Outlaw of Torn by Edgar Rice Burroughs: monstrous obligations to him, but he be, nathless, the
Outlaw of Torn and I the daughter of an earl and a
king's sister."
"A most unbridgeable gulf indeed," commented Rog-
er de Conde, drily. "Not even gratitude could lead a
king's niece to receive Norman of Torn on a footing
of equality."
"He has my friendship, always," said the girl, "but
I doubt me if Norman of Torn be the man to impose
upon it."
"One can never tell," said Roger de Conde, "what
The Outlaw of Torn |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Timaeus by Plato: our original intention, has now been brought down to the creation of man.
Completeness seems to require that something should be briefly said about
other animals: first of women, who are probably degenerate and cowardly
men. And when they degenerated, the gods implanted in men the desire of
union with them, creating in man one animate substance and in woman another
in the following manner:--The outlet for liquids they connected with the
living principle of the spinal marrow, which the man has the desire to emit
into the fruitful womb of the woman; this is like a fertile field in which
the seed is quickened and matured, and at last brought to light. When this
desire is unsatisfied the man is over-mastered by the power of the
generative organs, and the woman is subjected to disorders from the
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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 Charmides by Plato: of knowledge which brings happiness is the knowledge of good and evil. To
this Critias replies that the science or knowledge of good and evil, and
all the other sciences, are regulated by the higher science or knowledge of
knowledge. Socrates replies by again dividing the abstract from the
concrete, and asks how this knowledge conduces to happiness in the same
definite way in which medicine conduces to health.
And now, after making all these concessions, which are really inadmissible,
we are still as far as ever from ascertaining the nature of temperance,
which Charmides has already discovered, and had therefore better rest in
the knowledge that the more temperate he is the happier he will be, and not
trouble himself with the speculations of Socrates.
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