| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Agesilaus by Xenophon: soul may feel for what is lovely. Now, it being a national custom
among the Persians to salute those whom they honour with a kiss,
Megabates endeavoured so to salute Agesilaus, but the latter with much
show of battle, resisted--"No kiss might he accept."[3] I ask whether
such an incident does not reveal on the face of it the self-respect of
the man, and that of no vulgar order.[4] Megabates, who looked upon
himself as in some sense dishonoured, for the future endeavoured not
to offend in like sort again.[5] Whereupon Agesilaus appealed to one
who was his comrade to persuade Megabates again to honour him with his
regard; and the comrade, so appealed to, demanding, "If I persuade
him, will you bestow on him a kiss?" Agesilaus fell into a silence,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Walden by Henry David Thoreau: side, standing on its head, with its helve erect and gently swaying
to and fro with the pulse of the pond; and there it might have stood
erect and swaying till in the course of time the handle rotted off,
if I had not disturbed it. Making another hole directly over it
with an ice chisel which I had, and cutting down the longest birch
which I could find in the neighborhood with my knife, I made a
slip-noose, which I attached to its end, and, letting it down
carefully, passed it over the knob of the handle, and drew it by a
line along the birch, and so pulled the axe out again.
The shore is composed of a belt of smooth rounded white stones
like paving-stones, excepting one or two short sand beaches, and is
Walden |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Beast in the Jungle by Henry James: himself on the slab that was ready to take him, treating it as a
place prepared to receive his last sleep. What in all the wide
world had he now to keep awake for? He stared before him with the
question, and it was then that, as one of the cemetery walks passed
near him, he caught the shock of the face.
His neighbour at the other grave had withdrawn, as he himself, with
force enough in him, would have done by now, and was advancing
along the path on his way to one of the gates. This brought him
close, and his pace, was slow, so that--and all the more as there
was a kind of hunger in his look--the two men were for a minute
directly confronted. Marcher knew him at once for one of the
|
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 On the Duty of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau: virtue; for money comes between a man and his objects, and
obtains them for him; it was certainly no great virtue to
obtain it. It puts to rest many questions which he would
otherwise be taxed to answer; while the only new question
which it puts is the hard but superfluous one, how to spend
it. Thus his moral ground is taken from under his feet.
The opportunities of living are diminished in proportion as
that are called the "means" are increased. The best thing a
man can do for his culture when he is rich is to endeavor to
carry out those schemes which he entertained when he was
poor. Christ answered the Herodians according to their
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience |
