| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne: the quality and quantity of it together, they make a very good shift with--
and had they more of either the one or the other, it would destroy the
proper balance betwixt them, and I am satisfied moreover they would want
occasions to put them to use.
Now, Sir, if I conduct you home again into this warmer and more luxuriant
island, where you perceive the spring-tide of our blood and humours runs
high--where we have more ambition, and pride, and envy, and lechery, and
other whoreson passions upon our hands to govern and subject to reason--the
height of our wit, and the depth of our judgment, you see, are exactly
proportioned to the length and breadth of our necessities--and accordingly
we have them sent down amongst us in such a flowing kind of decent and
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Kenilworth by Walter Scott: when so poor a man does his day's job, he might be permitted to
work it out after his own fashion. Your horse is shod, and your
farrier paid--what need you cumber yourself further than to mount
and pursue your journey?"
"Nay, friend, you are mistaken," replied Tressilian; "every man
has a right to take the mask from the face of a cheat and a
juggler; and your mode of living raises suspicion that you are
both."
"If you are so determined; sir," said the smith, "I cannot help
myself save by force, which I were unwilling to use towards you,
Master Tressilian; not that I fear your weapon, but because I
Kenilworth |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield: simple, provided food"--she pointed to a little bag beside her--"a lettuce,
a carrot, a potato, and some nuts are ample, rational nourishment. I wash
them under the tap and eat them raw, just as they come from the harmless
earth--fresh and uncontaminated."
"Do you take nothing else all day?" I cried.
"Water. And perhaps a banana if I wake in the night." She turned round
and leaned on one elbow. "You over-eat yourself dreadfully," she said;
"shamelessly! How can you expect the Flame of the Spirit to burn brightly
under layers of superfluous flesh?"
I wished she would not stare at me, and thought of going to look at my
watch again when a little girl wearing a string of coral beads joined us.
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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 The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James: actual partaker of a divine or infinite life. Whether we view
religion from the human side or the divine--as the surrender of
the soul to God, or as the life of God in the soul--in either
aspect it is of its very essence that the Infinite has ceased to
be a far-off vision, and has become a present reality. The very
first pulsation of the spiritual life, when we rightly apprehend
its significance, is the indication that the division between the
Spirit and its object has vanished, that the ideal has become
real, that the finite has reached its goal and become suffused
with the presence and life of the Infinite.
"Oneness of mind and will with the divine mind and will is not
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