| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Economist by Xenophon: Socrates, that you and I again hold views precisely similar.
And does this method of planting apply also to the fig-tree? (I
inquired).
Isch. Surely, and not to the fig-tree alone, but to all the rest of
fruit-trees.[16] What reason indeed would there be for rejecting in
the case of other plant-growths[17] what is found to answer so well
with the vine?
[16] {akrodrua} = "edible fruits" in Xenophon's time. See Plat.
"Criti." 115 B; Dem. "c. Nicostr." 1251; Aristot. "Hist. An."
viii. 28. 8, {out akrodrua out opora khronios}; Theophr. "H. Pl."
iv. 4. 11. (At a later period, see "Geopon." x. 74, = "fruits
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain: enthusiastically religious. Nothing could divert them
from the regular and faithful performance of the pieties
enjoined by the Church. More than once I had seen
a noble who had gotten his enemy at a disadvantage,
stop to pray before cutting his throat; more than once
I had seen a noble, after ambushing and despatching
his enemy, retire to the nearest wayside shrine and
humbly give thanks, without even waiting to rob the
body. There was to be nothing finer or sweeter in the
life of even Benvenuto Cellini, that rough-hewn saint,
ten centuries later. All the nobles of Britain, with
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Black Dwarf by Walter Scott: subjects, until they came in sight of the upright stone which
gave name to the moor.
"As I shall answer," says Hobbie, "yonder's the creature creeping
about yet!--But it's daylight, and you have your gun, and I
brought out my bit whinger--I think we may venture on him."
"By all manner of means," said Earnscliff; "but, in the name of
wonder, what can he be doing there?"
"Biggin a dry-stane dyke, I think, wi' the grey geese, as they
ca' thae great loose stanes--Odd, that passes a' thing I e'er
heard tell of!"
As they approached nearer, Earnscliff could not help agreeing
|
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 Of The Nature of Things by Lucretius: Thus matter, consisting of a solid frame,
Hath power to be eternal, though all else,
Though all creation, be dissolved away.
Again, were naught of empty and inane,
The world were then a solid; as, without
Some certain bodies to fill the places held,
The world that is were but a vacant void.
And so, infallibly, alternate-wise
Body and void are still distinguished,
Since nature knows no wholly full nor void.
There are, then, certain bodies, possessed of power
Of The Nature of Things |
