| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Intentions by Oscar Wilde: ERNEST. The ortolans were delightful, and the Chambertin perfect,
and now let us return to the point at issue.
GILBERT. Ah! don't let us do that. Conversation should touch
everything, but should concentrate itself on nothing. Let us talk
about MORAL INDIGNATION, ITS CAUSE AND CURE, a subject on which I
think of writing: or about THE SURVIVAL OF THERSITES, as shown by
the English comic papers; or about any topic that may turn up.
ERNEST. No; I want to discuss the critic and criticism. You have
told me that the highest criticism deals with art, not as
expressive, but as impressive purely, and is consequently both
creative and independent, is in fact an art by itself, occupying
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Paz by Honore de Balzac: blood-hounds of the Russians. When we have fished a man out of the
Styx we cling to him. This new danger for poor Paz made me so unhappy
that I let myself be taken too, thinking I could help him. Two men can
get away where one will perish. Thanks to my name and some family
connections in Prussia, the authorities shut their eyes to my escape.
I got my dear captain through as a man of no consequence, a family
servant, and we reached Dantzic. There we got on board a Dutch vessel
and went to London. It took us two months to get there. My mother was
ill in England, and expecting me. Paz and I took care of her till her
death, which the Polish troubles hastened. Then we left London and
came to France. Men who go through such adversities become like
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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 Aesop's Fables by Aesop: out "Wolf, Wolf," still louder than before. But this time the
villagers, who had been fooled twice before, thought the boy was
again deceiving them, and nobody stirred to come to his help. So
the Wolf made a good meal off the boy's flock, and when the boy
complained, the wise man of the village said:
"A liar will not be believed, even when he speaks the truth."
The Young Thief and His Mother
A young Man had been caught in a daring act of theft and had
been condemned to be executed for it. He expressed his desire to
see his Mother, and to speak with her before he was led to
execution, and of course this was granted. When his Mother came
Aesop's Fables |
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 Charmides by Plato: energetic ones; or supposing that of the nobler actions, there are as many
quiet, as quick and vehement: still, even if we grant this, temperance
will not be acting quietly any more than acting quickly and energetically,
either in walking or talking or in anything else; nor will the quiet life
be more temperate than the unquiet, seeing that temperance is admitted by
us to be a good and noble thing, and the quick have been shown to be as
good as the quiet.
I think, he said, Socrates, that you are right.
Then once more, Charmides, I said, fix your attention, and look within;
consider the effect which temperance has upon yourself, and the nature of
that which has the effect. Think over all this, and, like a brave youth,
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