| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Timaeus by Plato: have known their own ancestors. How can we doubt the word of the children
of the gods? Although they give no probable or certain proofs, still, as
they declare that they are speaking of what took place in their own family,
we must conform to custom and believe them. In this manner, then,
according to them, the genealogy of these gods is to be received and set
forth.
Oceanus and Tethys were the children of Earth and Heaven, and from these
sprang Phorcys and Cronos and Rhea, and all that generation; and from
Cronos and Rhea sprang Zeus and Here, and all those who are said to be
their brethren, and others who were the children of these.
Now, when all of them, both those who visibly appear in their revolutions
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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 Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: other form of animal life upon Barsoom.
"The therns," and he smiled maliciously as he spoke, "are
but the result of ages of evolution from the pure white ape
of antiquity. They are a lower order still. There is but one
race of true and immortal humans on Barsoom. It is the
race of black men.
"The Tree of Life is dead, but before it died the plant
men learned to detach themselves from it and roam the face
of Barsoom with the other children of the First Parent.
"Now their bisexuality permits them to reproduce themselves
after the manner of true plants, but otherwise they have
The Gods of Mars |
