| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot: The river bears no empty bottles, sandwich papers,
Silk handkerchiefs, cardboard boxes, cigarette ends
Or other testimony of summer nights. The nymphs are departed.
And their friends, the loitering heirs of city directors; 180
Departed, have left no addresses.
Line 161 ALRIGHT. This spelling occurs also in
the Hogarth Press edition -- Editor.
By the waters of Leman I sat down and wept . . .
Sweet Thames, run softly till I end my song,
Sweet Thames, run softly, for I speak not loud or long.
But at my back in a cold blast I hear
The Waste Land |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from King James Bible: command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother,
to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land.
DEU 15:12 And if thy brother, an Hebrew man, or an Hebrew woman, be
sold unto thee, and serve thee six years; then in the seventh year thou
shalt let him go free from thee.
DEU 15:13 And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not
let him go away empty:
DEU 15:14 Thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of
thy floor, and out of thy winepress: of that wherewith the LORD thy God
hath blessed thee thou shalt give unto him.
DEU 15:15 And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land
King James Bible |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Parmenides by Plato: place in juxtaposition two absolutely divided and incoherent subjects. And
hence we are led to make a second remark: viz. that no explanation of the
Parmenides can be satisfactory which does not indicate the connexion of the
first and second parts. To suppose that Plato would first go out of his
way to make Parmenides attack the Platonic Ideas, and then proceed to a
similar but more fatal assault on his own doctrine of Being, appears to be
the height of absurdity.
Perhaps there is no passage in Plato showing greater metaphysical power
than that in which he assails his own theory of Ideas. The arguments are
nearly, if not quite, those of Aristotle; they are the objections which
naturally occur to a modern student of philosophy. Many persons will be
|
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 The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart: and after a minute he brought out two scraps of paper. "I have
been to the club-house," he said, "and among Mr. Armstrong's
effects, I found these. One is curious; the other is puzzling."
The first was a sheet of club note-paper, on which was written,
over and over, the name "Halsey B. Innes." It was Halsey's
flowing signature to a dot, but it lacked Halsey's ease. The
ones toward the bottom of the sheet were much better than the top
ones. Mr. Jamieson smiled at my face.
"His old tricks," he said. "That one is merely curious; this
one, as I said before, is puzzling."
The second scrap, folded and refolded into a compass so tiny that
The Circular Staircase |
