The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from King James Bible: PSA 44:25 For our soul is bowed down to the dust: our belly cleaveth
unto the earth.
PSA 44:26 Arise for our help, and redeem us for thy mercies' sake.
PSA 45:1 My heart is inditing a good matter: I speak of the things
which I have made touching the king: my tongue is the pen of a ready
writer.
PSA 45:2 Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into
thy lips: therefore God hath blessed thee for ever.
PSA 45:3 Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory
and thy majesty.
PSA 45:4 And in thy majesty ride prosperously because of truth and
King James Bible |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Alexandria and her Schools by Charles Kingsley: be not found the ally, not the enemy, of the Baconian philosophy; in
fact, the inductive method applied to words, as the expressions of
Metaphysic Laws, instead of to natural phenomena, as the expressions of
Physical ones. If you wish to see the highest instances of this method,
read Plato himself, not Proclus. If you wish to see how the same method
can be applied to Christian truth, read the dialectic passages in
Augustine's "Confessions." Whether or not you shall agree with their
conclusions, you will not be likely, if you have a truly scientific
habit of mind, to complain that they want either profundity, severity,
or simplicity.
So concludes the history of one of the Alexandrian schools of
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