| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Market-Place by Harold Frederic: said Thorpe, approaching a dismissal of the subject.
"People who show consideration for me; people who take
pains to do the little pleasant things for me, and see
that I'm not annoyed and worried by trifles--they're
the people that I, on my side, do the big things for.
I can be the best friend in the world, but only to those
who show that they care for me, and do what they know
I'll like. I don't want toadies about me, but I do want
people who feel bound to me, and are as keen about me
and my feelings and interests as they are about their own."
"It is delightfully feudal--all this," commented the nobleman,
The Market-Place |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac: "you-ou said th-th-that b-b-bankruptcy c-c-could, in some c-c-cases,
b-b-be p-p-prevented b-b-by--"
"By the courts of commerce themselves. It is done constantly," said
Monsieur C. de Bonfons, bestriding Grandet's meaning, or thinking he
guessed it, and kindly wishing to help him out with it. "Listen."
"Y-yes," said Grandet humbly, with the mischievous expression of a boy
who is inwardly laughing at his teacher while he pays him the greatest
attention.
"When a man so respected and important as, for example, your late
brother--"
"M-my b-b-brother, yes."
Eugenie Grandet |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Gambara by Honore de Balzac: performer and an even better composer," the musician began. "Thus at
an early age I had mastered the laws of musical construction in its
twofold aspects, the material and the spiritual; and as an inquisitive
child I observed many things which subsequently recurred to the mind
of the full-grown man.
"The French turned us out of our own home--my father and me. We were
ruined by the war. Thus, at the age of ten I entered on the wandering
life to which most men have been condemned whose brains were busy with
innovations, whether in art, science, or politics. Fate, or the
instincts of their mind which cannot fit into the compartments where
the trading class sit, providentially guides them to the spots where
Gambara |
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 Lesser Hippias by Plato: The Lesser Hippias, though inferior to the other dialogues, may be
reasonably believed to have been written by Plato, on the ground (1) of
considerable excellence; (2) of uniform tradition beginning with Aristotle
and his school. That the dialogue falls below the standard of Plato's
other works, or that he has attributed to Socrates an unmeaning paradox
(perhaps with the view of showing that he could beat the Sophists at their
own weapons; or that he could 'make the worse appear the better cause'; or
merely as a dialectical experiment)--are not sufficient reasons for
doubting the genuineness of the work.
LESSER HIPPIAS
by
|
