| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Weir of Hermiston by Robert Louis Stevenson: table at his wife: "I think these broth would be better to sweem in than
to sup." Or else to the butler: "Here, M'Killop, awa' wi' this Raadical
gigot - tak' it to the French, man, and bring me some puddocks! It
seems rather a sore kind of a business that I should be all day in Court
haanging Raadicals, and get nawthing to my denner." Of course this was
but a manner of speaking, and he had never hanged a man for being a
Radical in his life; the law, of which he was the faithful minister,
directing otherwise. And of course these growls were in the nature of
pleasantry, but it was of a recondite sort; and uttered as they were in
his resounding voice, and commented on by that expression which they
called in the Parliament House "Hermiston's hanging face" - they struck
|
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 The Golden Sayings of Epictetus by Epictetus: exchange for it, to become faithless.
XIII
But God hath introduced Man to be a spectator of Himself and
of His works; and not a spectator only, but also an interpreter
of them. Wherefore it is a shame for man to begin and to leave
off where the brutes do. Rather he should begin there, and leave
off where Nature leaves off in us: and that is at contemplation,
and understanding, and a manner of life that is in harmony with
herself.
See then that ye die not without being spectators of these
things.
The Golden Sayings of Epictetus |
