| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Alcibiades II by Platonic Imitator: inconceivable that the Gods have regard, not to the justice and purity of
our souls, but to costly processions and sacrifices, which men may
celebrate year after year, although they have committed innumerable crimes
against the Gods or against their fellow-men or the state. For the Gods,
as Ammon and his prophet declare, are no receivers of gifts, and they scorn
such unworthy service. Wherefore also it would seem that wisdom and
justice are especially honoured both by the Gods and by men of sense; and
they are the wisest and most just who know how to speak and act towards
Gods and men. But I should like to hear what your opinion is about these
matters.
ALCIBIADES: I agree, Socrates, with you and with the God, whom, indeed, it
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Chance by Joseph Conrad: misunderstood--"
"Of course he would. Men are so conceited," I said.
I saw it well enough that he must have thought she had come down to
him. What else could he have thought? And then he had been
"gentleness itself." A new experience for that poor, delicate, and
yet so resisting creature. Gentleness in passion! What could have
been more seductive to the scared, starved heart of that girl?
Perhaps had he been violent, she might have told him that what she
came down to keep was the tryst of death--not of love. It occurred
to me as I looked at her, young, fragile in aspect, and intensely
alive in her quietness, that perhaps she did not know herself then
Chance |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx: branch the old order of society.
What they upbraid the bourgeoisie with is not so much that it
creates
a proletariat, as that it creates a revolutionary proletariat.
In political practice, therefore, they join in all coercive
measures against the working class; and in ordinary life, despite
their high falutin phrases, they stoop to pick up the golden
apples dropped from the tree of industry, and to barter truth,
love,
and honour for traffic in wool, beetroot-sugar, and potato
spirits.
The Communist Manifesto |
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 Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne: Then only forty leagues would have separated us! But they were forty
leagues perpendicular of solid granite wall, and in reality we were a
thousand leagues asunder!
All these painful reflections rapidly crossed my mind before I could
answer my uncle's question.
"Well, now," he repeated, "won't you tell me how you have slept?"
"Oh, very well," I said. "I am only a little knocked up, but I shall
soon be better."
"Oh," says my uncle, "that's nothing to signify. You are only a
little bit tired."
"But you, uncle, you seem in very good spirits this morning."
Journey to the Center of the Earth |
