| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Somebody's Little Girl by Martha Young: fast to Bessie Bell's hand.
``But--I don't know,'' said Bessie Bell.
Then the lady looked as if she had begun to wonder, too, and she
seemed to be looking away off; away off, but how closely she held
Bessie Bell's hand--closer than Sister Angela, or Sister Theckla, or
even Sister Helen Vincula, or Sister Justina--
Then Bessie Bell began to wonder still more, and to remember, as the
lady held fast to her little fingers. She began to talk her
thinking out loud, and she said: ``Yes, there was a window--where
everything was green, and, small, and moving--but Sister Justina
said there was not any window like that in the whole world--''
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lysis by Plato: which is neither good nor evil?
They agreed to the latter alternative.
Then, my boys, we have again fallen into the old discarded error; for the
unjust will be the friend of the unjust, and the bad of the bad, as well as
the good of the good.
That appears to be the result.
But again, if we say that the congenial is the same as the good, in that
case the good and he only will be the friend of the good.
True.
But that too was a position of ours which, as you will remember, has been
already refuted by ourselves.
Lysis |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Pupil by Henry James: rejoicing that school was out of the question: in any million of
boys it was probably good for all but one, and Morgan was that
millionth. It would have made him comparative and superior - it
might have made him really require kicking. Pemberton would try to
be school himself - a bigger seminary than five hundred grazing
donkeys, so that, winning no prizes, the boy would remain
unconscious and irresponsible and amusing - amusing, because,
though life was already intense in his childish nature, freshness
still made there a strong draught for jokes. It turned out that
even in the still air of Morgan's various disabilities jokes
flourished greatly. He was a pale lean acute undeveloped little
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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 Anthem by Ayn Rand: "Dare not choose in your minds the
work you would like to do when you leave
the Home of the Students. You shall do
that which the Council of Vocations shall
prescribe for you. For the Council of
Vocations knows in its great wisdom where
you are needed by your brother men, better
than you can know it in your unworthy
little minds. And if you are not needed by
your brother man, there is no reason for
you to burden the earth with your bodies."
Anthem |
