| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Barlaam and Ioasaph by St. John of Damascus: that thou art older than the god made by thee. This is downright
madness. Being a man, thou hast persuaded thyself that thou
canst make God. How can this be? Thou makest not God, but the
likeness of a man, or of some beast, sans tongue, sans throat,
sans brains, sans inwards, so that it is the similitude neither
of a man, nor of a beast, but only a thing of no use and sheer
vanity. Why therefore flatterest thou things that cannot feel?
Why sittest thou at the feet of things that cannot move and help
thee? But for the skill of the mason, or timber-wright, or
hammer-smith, thou hadst not had a god. Had there been no
warders nigh at hand, thou hadst lost thy god. He, to whom many
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Boys' Life of Abraham Lincoln by Helen Nicolay: country, that he "could make a few rabbit tracks," and that being
deemed quite sufficient, was immediately sworn in, and set about
discharging the duties of his first office. The way he performed
these not only gave general satisfaction, but greatly interested
Mentor Graham, who was the village schoolmaster, and from that
time on proved a most helpful friend to him.
Offut finally arrived with a miscellaneous lot of goods, which
Lincoln opened and put in order, and the storekeeping began.
Trade does not seem to have been brisk, for Offut soon increased
his venture by renting the Rutledge and Cameron mill, on whose
historic dam the flatboat had come to grief. For a while the care
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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 Philosophy 4 by Owen Wister: The first boy, after a slight wink at the second, addressed the tutor.
"Supposing you were to happen to forget yourself," said he to that sleek
gentleman, "would you evaporate?"
The tutor turned his little eyes doubtfully upon the tennis boys, but
answered, reciting the language of his notes: "The idealistic theory
does not apply to the thinking ego, but to the world of external
phenomena. The world exists in our conception of it.
"Then," said the second boy, "when a thing is inconceivable?"
"It has no existence," replied the tutor, complacently.
"But a billion dollars is inconceivable," retorted the boy. "No mind
can take in a sum of that size; but it exists."
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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 Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: to Kantos Kan from Arras.
My friend read the dispatch and then turned to me.
"Zat Arras commands me to bring our 'prisoners' before
him. There is naught else to do. He is supreme in Helium,
yet it would be far more in keeping with chivalry and good
taste were he to come hither and greet the saviour of
Barsoom with the honours that are his due."
"You know full well, my friend," I said, smiling, "that
Zat Arras has good cause to hate me. Nothing would please
him better than to humiliate me and then to kill me. Now
that he has so excellent an excuse, let us go and see if he
The Gods of Mars |
