| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: on Mt. Eryx.
{144} From this and other passages in the "Odyssey" it appears
that we are in an age anterior to the use of coined money--an
age when cauldrons, tripods, swords, cattle, chattels of all
kinds, measures of corn, wine, or oil, etc. etc., not to say
pieces of gold, silver, bronze, or even iron, wrought more or
less, but unstamped, were the nearest approach to a currency
that had as yet been reached.
{145} Gr. is [Greek]
{146} I correct these proofs abroad and am not within reach of
Hesiod, but surely this passage suggests acquaintance with the
The Odyssey |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Road to Oz by L. Frank Baum: said he gratefully.
"It isn't everyone who knows the road to Butterfield," Dorothy
remarked as she tripped along the lane; "but I've driven there many a
time with Uncle Henry, and so I b'lieve I could find it blindfolded."
"Don't do that, miss," said the shaggy man earnestly; "you might make
a mistake."
"I won't," she answered, laughing. "Here's the highway. Now it's the
second--no, the third turn to the left--or else it's the fourth.
Let's see. The first one is by the elm tree, and the second is by the
gopher holes; and then--"
"Then what?" he inquired, putting his hands in his coat pockets.
The Road to Oz |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Catherine de Medici by Honore de Balzac: seeing all around it. His eyes, the arching brows of which, scarcely
covered with a whitish down, projected like an awning, were strongly
circled by a pale-blue band, the skin being white and shining at the
spring of the nose,--a sign which almost always denotes excessive
enthusiasm. Christophe was of the people,--the people who devote
themselves, who fight for their devotions, who let themselves be
inveigled and betrayed; intelligent enough to comprehend and serve an
idea, too upright to turn it to his own account, too noble to sell
himself.
Contrasting with this son of Lecamus, Chaudieu, the ardent minister,
with brown hair thinned by vigils, a yellow skin, an eloquent mouth, a
|
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 Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad: "We aren't indeed! There's nothing of a boy's tale in this.
But there's nothing else for it. I want no more.
You don't suppose I am afraid of what can be done to me?
Prison or gallows or whatever they may please.
But you don't see me coming back to explain such things
to an old fellow in a wig and twelve respectable tradesmen,
do you? What can they know whether I am guilty or not--
or of WHAT I am guilty, either? That's my affair.
What does the Bible say? `Driven off the face of the earth.'
Very well, I am off the face of the earth now. As I came
at night so I shall go."
The Secret Sharer |
