| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lesser Hippias by Plato: including the Epistles, the Epinomis, the dialogues rejected by the
ancients themselves, namely, the Axiochus, De justo, De virtute, Demodocus,
Sisyphus, Eryxias, which on grounds, both of internal and external
evidence, we are able with equal certainty to reject. But there still
remains a small portion of which we are unable to affirm either that they
are genuine or spurious. They may have been written in youth, or possibly
like the works of some painters, may be partly or wholly the compositions
of pupils; or they may have been the writings of some contemporary
transferred by accident to the more celebrated name of Plato, or of some
Platonist in the next generation who aspired to imitate his master. Not
that on grounds either of language or philosophy we should lightly reject
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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 Apology by Xenophon: pleadings, or that the defendant had skill to turn some charming
phrase?" Thus appealed to, Socrates replied: "Nay, solemnly I tell
you, twice already I have essayed to consider my defence, and twice
the divinity[9] hinders me"; and to the remark of Hermogenes, "That is
strange!" he answered again: "Strange, do you call it, that to God it
should seem better for me to die at once? Do you not know that up to
this moment I will not concede to any man to have lived a better life
than I have; since what can exceed the pleasure, which has been mine,
of knowing[10] that my whole life has been spent holily and justly?
And indeed this verdict of self-approval I found re-echoed in the
opinion which my friends and intimates have formed concerning me.[11]
The Apology |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from King James Bible: flood, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his
seed, and gave him Isaac.
JOS 24:4 And I gave unto Isaac Jacob and Esau: and I gave unto Esau
mount Seir, to possess it; but Jacob and his children went down into
Egypt.
JOS 24:5 I sent Moses also and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt, according to
that which I did among them: and afterward I brought you out.
JOS 24:6 And I brought your fathers out of Egypt: and ye came unto the
sea; and the Egyptians pursued after your fathers with chariots and
horsemen unto the Red sea.
JOS 24:7 And when they cried unto the LORD, he put darkness between you
King James Bible |
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 Records of a Family of Engineers by Robert Louis Stevenson: suppose you were to blast that boulder, what would happen?
Follow it - use the eyes God has given you - can you not see
that a great deal of land would be reclaimed upon this side?'
It was to me like school in holidays; but to him, until I had
worn him out with my invincible triviality, a delight. Thus
he pored over the engineer's voluminous handy-book of nature;
thus must, too, have pored my grand-father and uncles.
But it is of the essence of this knowledge, or this knack
of mind, to be largely incommunicable. `It cannot be imparted
to another,' says my father. The verbal casting-net is thrown
in vain over these evanescent, inferential relations. Hence
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