| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte by Karl Marx: Pretender to the throne, and exclude the Pretender of the Opposite
party, but also are all united in a common hatred for and common attacks
against the "Republic." On its side, the Mountain appears, in
counter-distinction to the royalist conspiracy, as the representative of
the "Republic." The party of Order seems constantly engaged in a
"Reaction," which, neither more nor less than in Prussia, is directed
against the press, the right of association and the like, and is
enforced by brutal police interventions on the part of the bureaucracy,
the police and the public prosecutor--just as in Prussia; the Mountain
on the contrary, is engaged with equal assiduity in parrying these
attacks, and thus in defending the "eternal rights of man"--as every
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne: Colonel Pyncheon sat on horseback, grimly gazing at the scene
Maule had addressed him from the scaffold, and uttered a prophecy,
of which history, as well as fireside tradition, has preserved
the very words. "God," said the dying man, pointing his finger,
with a ghastly look, at the undismayed countenance of his enemy,
--"God will give him blood to drink!" After the reputed wizard's
death, his humble homestead had fallen an easy spoil into Colonel
Pyncheon's grasp. When it was understood, however, that the
Colonel intended to erect a family mansion-spacious, ponderously
framed of oaken timber, and calculated to endure for many generations
of his posterity over the spot first covered by the log-built hut
House of Seven Gables |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Apology by Xenophon: Laert. ii. 41. These authorities tell a different story. Why
should these stories, if true, as no doubt they were, be omitted?
[43] Cf. Plat. "Crit." 44 B.
When the trial drew to an end, we are told, the master said:[44]
"Sirs, those who instructed the witnesses that they ought to perjure
themselves and bear false witness against me, alike with those who
listened to their instruction, must be conscious to themselves of a
deep impiety and injustice.[45] But for myself, what reason have I at
the present time to hold my head less high than I did before sentence
was passed against me, if I have not been convicted of having done any
of those things whereof my accusers accused me? It has not been proved
The Apology |
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 Hiero by Xenophon: [31] {meta kharas}. Cf. Aesch. Fr. 237, {stomatos en prote khara}, of
a hungry man; "Od." xvii. 603.
It looks very much (interposed Simonides) as if the sole pleasure left
you to explain the vulgar ambition to wear a crown, must be that named
after Aphrodite. For in this field it is your privilege to consort
with whatever fairest fair your eyes may light on.
Hiero. Nay, now you have named that one thing of all others, take my
word for it, in which we princes are worse off than lesser people.[32]
[32] Reading {saph' isthi}, or if as Cobet conj. {saphestata}, transl.
"are at a disadvantage most clearly by comparison with ordinary
folk."
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