| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Battle of the Books by Jonathan Swift: Called up at midnight, ran to save
A blind old beggar from the grave:
But, see how Satan spreads his snares;
He quite forgot to say his prayers.
He cannot help it, for his heart,
Sometimes to act the parson's part,
Quotes from the Bible many a sentence
That moves his patients to repentance:
And, when his medicines do no good,
Supports their minds with heavenly food.
At which, however well intended,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Hero of Our Time by M.Y. Lermontov: horror.
I shrugged my shoulders and bowed to Grush-
nitski's seconds.
CHAPTER XXI
AS I descended by the path, I observed Grush-
nitski's bloodstained corpse between the
clefts of the rocks. Involuntarily, I closed my
eyes.
Untying my horse, I set off home at a walking
pace. A stone lay upon my heart. To my eyes
the sun seemed dim, its beams were powerless to
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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 In Darkest England and The Way Out by General William Booth: what may not its Social Wing be expected to do, with the example of the
Army before it?
4. The maintenance of all this system has, of course, been largely due
to the unqualified acceptance of military government and discipline.
But for this we cannot be blind to the fact that even in our own ranks
difficulties would every day arise as to the exaltation to front seats
of those who were formerly persecutors and injurious. The old feeling
which would have kept Paul suspected, in the background, after his
conversion is, unfortunately, a part of the conservative groundwork of
human nature that continues to exist everywhere, and which has to be
overcome by rigid discipline in order to secure that everywhere and
In Darkest England and The Way Out |
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 Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: progressive motion made in the air by the island. On the second
morning, about eleven o'clock, the king himself in person,
attended by his nobility, courtiers, and officers, having
prepared all their musical instruments, played on them for three
hours without intermission, so that I was quite stunned with the
noise; neither could I possibly guess the meaning, till my tutor
informed me. He said that, the people of their island had their
ears adapted to hear "the music of the spheres, which always
played at certain periods, and the court was now prepared to bear
their part, in whatever instrument they most excelled."
In our journey towards Lagado, the capital city, his majesty
Gulliver's Travels |
