| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Cratylus by Plato: name?
HERMOGENES: Yes.
SOCRATES: And will there be so many names of each thing as everybody says
that there are? and will they be true names at the time of uttering them?
HERMOGENES: Yes, Socrates, I can conceive no correctness of names other
than this; you give one name, and I another; and in different cities and
countries there are different names for the same things; Hellenes differ
from barbarians in their use of names, and the several Hellenic tribes from
one another.
SOCRATES: But would you say, Hermogenes, that the things differ as the
names differ? and are they relative to individuals, as Protagoras tells us?
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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 Passion in the Desert by Honore de Balzac: a cry that froze my heart; and I saw her dying, still looking at me
without anger. I would have given all the world--my cross even, which
I had not got then--to have brought her to life again. It was as
though I had murdered a real person; and the soldiers who had seen my
flag, and were come to my assistance, found me in tears.'
" 'Well sir,' he said, after a moment of silence, 'since then I have
been in war in Germany, in Spain, in Russia, in France; I've certainly
carried my carcase about a good deal, but never have I seen anything
like the desert. Ah! yes, it is very beautiful!'
" 'What did you feel there?' I asked him.
"'Oh! that can't be described, young man! Besides, I am not always
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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 A Book of Remarkable Criminals by H. B. Irving: circumstances to the woman, but refused them to the man. After a
trial lasting four days Eyraud was sentenced to death, Bompard to
twenty years penal servitude.
At first Eyraud appeared to accept his fate with resignation. He
wrote to his daughter that he was tired of life, and that his
death was the best thing that could happen for her mother and
herself. But, as time went on and the efforts of his advocate to
obtain a commutation of his sentence held out some hope of
reprieve, Eyraud became more reluctant to quit the world.
"There are grounds for a successful appeal," he wrote, "I am
pretty certain that my sentence will be commuted. . . . You ask
A Book of Remarkable Criminals |
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 Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy: You cannot seriously wish me to stay idling at home
all day?"
"But it is so dreadful--a furze-cutter! and you a man who
have lived about the world, and speak French, and German,
and who are fit for what is so much better than this."
"I suppose when you first saw me and heard about me I
was wrapped in a sort of golden halo to your eyes--a man
who knew glorious things, and had mixed in brilliant
scenes--in short, an adorable, delightful, distracting hero?"
"Yes," she said, sobbing.
"And now I am a poor fellow in brown leather."
Return of the Native |
