| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Unseen World and Other Essays by John Fiske: Alexandrian Library.
Every one has heard how Amrou, after his conquest of Egypt, sent
to Caliph Omar to know what should be done with the Alexandrian
Library. "If the books agree with the Koran," said the Caliph,
"they are superfluous; if they contradict it, they are damnable;
in either case, destroy them." So the books were taken and used
to light the fires which heated water for the baths; and so vast
was the number that, used in this way, they lasted six months!
All this happened because John the Grammarian was over-anxious
enough to request that the books might be preserved, and thus
drew Amrou's attention to them. Great has been the obloquy poured
The Unseen World and Other Essays |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley: Vengeance belongs to thee," etc.
* The crew of the Tobie, cast away on the Barbary coast a few years
after, "began with heavy hearts to sing the twelfth Psalm, 'Help,
Lord, for good and godly men,' etc. Howbeit, ere we had finished
four verses, the waves of the sea had stopped the breaths of most."
And then again to quarters; for half the day's work, or more than
half, still remained to be done; and hardly were the decks cleared
afresh, and the damage repaired as best it could be, when she came
ranging up to leeward, as closehauled as she could.
She was, as I said, a long flush-decked ship of full five hundred
tons, more than double the size, in fact, of the Rose, though not
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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 Albert Savarus by Honore de Balzac: exclaimed Mariette, rejoiced at the unexpected turn of affairs.
"In the first place, silence for silence," said Rosalie. "I will not
marry Monsieur de Soulas; but one thing I will have, and must have; my
help and favor are yours on one condition only."
"What is that?"
"I must see the letters which Monsieur Savaron sends to the post by
Jerome."
"But what for?" said Mariette in alarm.
"Oh! merely to read them, and you yourself shall post them afterwards.
It will cause a little delay; that is all."
At this moment they went into church, and each of them, instead of
Albert Savarus |
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 Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche: and the most dangerous of errors hitherto has been a dogmatist
error--namely, Plato's invention of Pure Spirit and the Good in
Itself. But now when it has been surmounted, when Europe, rid of
this nightmare, can again draw breath freely and at least enjoy a
healthier--sleep, we, WHOSE DUTY IS WAKEFULNESS ITSELF, are the
heirs of all the strength which the struggle against this error
has fostered. It amounted to the very inversion of truth, and the
denial of the PERSPECTIVE--the fundamental condition--of life, to
speak of Spirit and the Good as Plato spoke of them; indeed one
might ask, as a physician: "How did such a malady attack that
finest product of antiquity, Plato? Had the wicked Socrates
Beyond Good and Evil |
