| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Lesson of the Master by Henry James: before I die the thing I most want, the thing I yearn for: a life
in which the passion - ours - is really intense. If you can be
rare don't fail of it! Think what it is - how it counts - how it
lives!"
They had moved to the door and he had closed both his hands over
his companion's. Here they paused again and our hero breathed
deep. "I want to live!"
"In what sense?"
"In the greatest."
"Well then stick to it - see it through."
"With your sympathy - your help?"
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from First Inaugural Address by Abraham Lincoln: of the rights of the States, and especially
the right of each State to order and control
its own domestic institutions according to
its own judgment exclusively, is essential
to that balance of power on which the perfection
and endurance of our political fabric depend,
and we denounce the lawless invasion by armed
force of the soil of any State or Territory,
no matter under what pretext,
as among the gravest of crimes."
I now reiterate these sentiments; and, in doing so, I only press upon
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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 Lady Baltimore by Owen Wister: In the sitting room Doctor Beaugarcon sat waiting, and at sight of Juno
entering the door (she headed our irregular procession) he sprang up and
lifted admiring hands. "Oh, why didn't I have an aunt like you!" he
exclaimed, and to Mrs. Trevise as she followed: "She pays her nephew's
poker debts."
"How much, cousin Tom?" asked the upcountry bride.
And the gay old doctor chuckled, as he kissed her: "Thirty dollars this
afternoon, my darling."
At this the Briton dragged me behind a door in the hall, and there we
danced together.
"That Mayrant chap will do," he declared; and we composed ourselves for a
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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 Lysis by Plato: and we are obliged to listen to him.
When I heard this, I said: O ridiculous Hippothales! how can you be making
and singing hymns in honour of yourself before you have won?
But my songs and verses, he said, are not in honour of myself, Socrates.
You think not? I said.
Nay, but what do you think? he replied.
Most assuredly, I said, those songs are all in your own honour; for if you
win your beautiful love, your discourses and songs will be a glory to you,
and may be truly regarded as hymns of praise composed in honour of you who
have conquered and won such a love; but if he slips away from you, the more
you have praised him, the more ridiculous you will look at having lost this
Lysis |
