| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from On the Duty of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau: it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent
of injustice to another, then I say, break the law. Let
your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine. What I
have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself
to the wrong which I condemn.
As for adopting the ways of the State has provided for
remedying the evil, I know not of such ways. They take too
much time, and a man's life will be gone. I have other
affairs to attend to. I came into this world, not chiefly
to make this a good place to live in, but to live in it,
be it good or bad. A man has not everything to do, but
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Melmoth Reconciled by Honore de Balzac: said to Castanier; "you are so like our poor dear master that is gone.
But if you are his brother, you have come too late to bid him
good-bye. The good gentleman died the night before last."
"How did he die?" Castanier asked of one of the priests.
"Set your mind at rest," said the old priest; he partly raised as he
spoke the black pall that covered the catafalque.
Castanier, looking at him, saw one of those faces that faith has made
sublime; the soul seemed to shine forth from every line of it,
bringing light and warmth for other men, kindled by the unfailing
charity within. This was Sir John Melmoth's confessor.
"Your brother made an end that men may envy, and that must rejoice the
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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 The Symposium by Xenophon: and Gorgias, and Prodicus, and a host of others, to learn wisdom, must
you pour contempt on us poor fellows, who are but self-taught
tinkers[18] in philosophy compared with you?
[17] As to Protagoras of Abdera, Gorgias of Leontini, Prodicus of
Ceos, see Plat. "Prot." 314 C, "Rep." x. 600 C, "Apol." 19 E;
"Anab." II. vi. 17; "Mem." II. i. 21; "Encyc. Brit." "Sophists,"
H. Jackson.
[18] Or, "hand-to-mouth cultivators of philosophy," "roturiers." Cf.
Plat. "Rep." 565 A: "A third class who work for themselves"; Thuc.
i. 141: "The Peloponnesians cultivate their own soil, and they
have no wealth either public or private." Cf. "Econ." v. 4.
The Symposium |
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 An Old Maid by Honore de Balzac: Bousquier led the same parasite life as the chevalier; and he who does
not spend his income is always rich. His only servant was a sort of
Jocrisse, a lad of the neighborhood, rather a ninny, trained slowly
and with difficulty to du Bousquier's requirements. His master had
taught him, as he might an orang-outang, to rub the floors, dust the
furniture, black his boots, brush his coats, and bring a lantern to
guide him home at night if the weather were cloudy, and clogs if it
rained. Like many other human beings, this lad hadn't stuff enough in
him for more than one vice; he was a glutton. Often, when du Bousquier
went to a grand dinner, he would take Rene to wait at table; on such
occasions he made him take off his blue cotton jacket, with its big
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