| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Statesman by Plato: the earthborn men? The origin of these and the like stories is to be found
in the tale which I am about to narrate.
There was a time when God directed the revolutions of the world, but at the
completion of a certain cycle he let go; and the world, by a necessity of
its nature, turned back, and went round the other way. For divine things
alone are unchangeable; but the earth and heavens, although endowed with
many glories, have a body, and are therefore liable to perturbation. In
the case of the world, the perturbation is very slight, and amounts only to
a reversal of motion. For the lord of moving things is alone self-moved;
neither can piety allow that he goes at one time in one direction and at
another time in another; or that God has given the universe opposite
Statesman |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Pivot of Civilization by Margaret Sanger: emergency. These may be briefly summarized as follows:
(1) Philanthropy and Charity: This is the present and traditional
method of meeting the problems of human defect and dependence, of
poverty and delinquency. It is emotional, altruistic, at best
ameliorative, aiming to meet the individual situation as it arises and
presents itself. Its effect in practise is seldom, if ever, truly
preventive. Concerned with symptoms, with the allaying of acute and
catastrophic miseries, it cannot, if it would, strike at the radical
causes of social misery. At its worst, it is sentimental and
paternalistic.
(2) Marxian Socialism: This may be considered typical of many widely
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Bucolics by Virgil: With branching antlers of a sprightly stag,
Young Micon offers: if his luck but hold,
Full-length in polished marble, ankle-bound
With purple buskin, shall thy statue stand."
THYRSIS
"A bowl of milk, Priapus, and these cakes,
Yearly, it is enough for thee to claim;
Thou art the guardian of a poor man's plot.
Wrought for a while in marble, if the flock
At lambing time be filled,stand there in gold."
CORYDON
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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 On the Duty of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau: like themselves. I do not hear of men being forced to live
this way or that by masses of men. What sort of life were
that to live? When I meet a government which says to me,
"Your money our your life," why should I be in haste to give
it my money? It may be in a great strait, and not know what
to do: I cannot help that. It must help itself; do as I do.
It is not worth the while to snivel about it. I am not
responsible for the successful working of the machinery of
society. I am not the son of the engineer. I perceive
that, when an acorn and a chestnut fall side by side, the
one does not remain inert to make way for the other, but
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience |
