| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Barlaam and Ioasaph by St. John of Damascus: without faith. For, saith the Apostle, `Walk in the Spirit, and
ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.' Now the works of the
flesh are manifest, which are these: Adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,
variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
envyings, murders, love of money, railing, love of pleasure,
drunkenness, revelling, arrogance, and such like, of the which I
tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they
which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God. But
the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, sanctification
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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 Soul of the Far East by Percival Lowell: enjoyment, develops also.
A second omission in Japanese etymology is that of gender. That
words should be credited with sex is a verbal anthropomorphism that
would seem to a Japanese exquisitely grotesque, if so be that it did
not strike him as actually immodest. For the absence of gender is
simply symptomatic of a much more vital failing, a disregard of sex.
Originally, as their language bears witness, the Japanese showed a
childish reluctance to recognizing sex at all. Usually a single
sexless term was held sufficient for a given species, and did duty
collectively for both sexes. Only where a consideration of sex
thrust itself upon them, beyond the possibility of evasion, did they
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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 The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James: there to cooperate with it in action. Strong affections need a
strong will; strong active powers need a strong intellect; strong
intellect needs strong sympathies, to keep life steady. If the
balance exist, no one faculty can possibly be too strong--we only
get the stronger all-round character. In the life of saints,
technically so called, the spiritual faculties are strong, but
what gives the impression of extravagance proves usually on
examination to be a relative deficiency of intellect. Spiritual
excitement takes pathological forms whenever other interests are
too few and the intellect too narrow. We find this exemplified
by all the saintly attributes in turn--devout love of God,
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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 Euthyphro by Plato: SOCRATES: I mean to say that the holy has been acknowledged by us to be
loved of God because it is holy, not to be holy because it is loved.
EUTHYPHRO: Yes.
SOCRATES: But that which is dear to the gods is dear to them because it is
loved by them, not loved by them because it is dear to them.
EUTHYPHRO: True.
SOCRATES: But, friend Euthyphro, if that which is holy is the same with
that which is dear to God, and is loved because it is holy, then that which
is dear to God would have been loved as being dear to God; but if that
which is dear to God is dear to him because loved by him, then that which
is holy would have been holy because loved by him. But now you see that
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