| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Some Reminiscences by Joseph Conrad: pack her trunks.
This was the beginning of a lawsuit, an abominable marvel of
chicane, which by the use of every legal subterfuge was made to
last for many years. It was also the occasion for a display of
much kindness and sympathy. All the neighbouring houses flew
open for the reception of the homeless. Neither legal aid nor
material assistance in the prosecution of the suit was ever
wanting. X, on his side, went about shedding tears publicly over
his stepchildren's ingratitude and his wife's blind infatuation;
but as at the same time he displayed great cleverness in the art
of concealing material documents (he was even suspected of having
Some Reminiscences |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Thus Spake Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche: elevation. Alas, was THIS perhaps the higher man whose cry I heard?
I love the great despisers. Man is something that hath to be surpassed."--
LXVIII. THE VOLUNTARY BEGGAR.
When Zarathustra had left the ugliest man, he was chilled and felt
lonesome: for much coldness and lonesomeness came over his spirit, so that
even his limbs became colder thereby. When, however, he wandered on and
on, uphill and down, at times past green meadows, though also sometimes
over wild stony couches where formerly perhaps an impatient brook had made
its bed, then he turned all at once warmer and heartier again.
"What hath happened unto me?" he asked himself, "something warm and living
quickeneth me; it must be in the neighbourhood.
Thus Spake Zarathustra |
