| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: which was, therefore, a character we had no pretence to
challenge, even from the account I had given of my own people;
although he manifestly perceived, that, in order to favour them,
I had concealed many particulars, and often said the thing which
was not.
"He was the more confirmed in this opinion, because, he observed,
that as I agreed in every feature of my body with other YAHOOS,
except where it was to my real disadvantage in point of strength,
speed, and activity, the shortness of my claws, and some other
particulars where nature had no part; so from the representation
I had given him of our lives, our manners, and our actions, he
Gulliver's Travels |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Love Songs by Sara Teasdale: The lake bears only thin reflected lights
That shake a little. How I long to take
One from the cold black water -- new-made gold
To give you in your hand! And see, and see,
There is a star, deep in the lake, a star!
Oh, dimmer than a pearl -- if you stoop down
Your hand could almost reach it up to me. . . .
There was a new frail yellow moon to-night --
I wish you could have had it for a cup
With stars like dew to fill it to the brim. . . .
How cold it is! Even the lights are cold;
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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 Taras Bulba and Other Tales by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: overpowered him.
In such cases it was customary for the Cossacks to pursue the robbers
at once, endeavouring to overtake them on the road; for, let the
prisoners once be got to the bazaars of Asia Minor, Smyrna, or the
island of Crete, and God knows in what places the tufted heads of
Zaporozhtzi might not be seen. This was the occasion of the Cossacks'
assembling. They all stood to a man with their caps on; for they had
not met to listen to the commands of their hetman, but to take counsel
together as equals among equals. "Let the old men first advise," was
shouted to the crowd. "Let the Koschevoi give his opinion," cried
others.
Taras Bulba and Other Tales |
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 Lesser Hippias by Plato: of a forger. The parallelisms of the Greater Hippias with the other
dialogues, and the allusion to the Lesser (where Hippias sketches the
programme of his next lecture, and invites Socrates to attend and bring any
friends with him who may be competent judges), are more than suspicious:--
they are of a very poor sort, such as we cannot suppose to have been due to
Plato himself. The Greater Hippias more resembles the Euthydemus than any
other dialogue; but is immeasurably inferior to it. The Lesser Hippias
seems to have more merit than the Greater, and to be more Platonic in
spirit. The character of Hippias is the same in both dialogues, but his
vanity and boasting are even more exaggerated in the Greater Hippias. His
art of memory is specially mentioned in both. He is an inferior type of
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