| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Meno by Plato: geometry, which he had never learned in this world. He must therefore have
brought them with him from another.
The notion of a previous state of existence is found in the verses of
Empedocles and in the fragments of Heracleitus. It was the natural answer
to two questions, 'Whence came the soul? What is the origin of evil?' and
prevailed far and wide in the east. It found its way into Hellas probably
through the medium of Orphic and Pythagorean rites and mysteries. It was
easier to think of a former than of a future life, because such a life has
really existed for the race though not for the individual, and all men come
into the world, if not 'trailing clouds of glory,' at any rate able to
enter into the inheritance of the past. In the Phaedrus, as well as in the
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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 The Crisis in Russia by Arthur Ransome: turn over the leaves of a book. In spite of this he is one of
the hardest workers in Russia, and although his obstinacy,
his hatred of compromise, and a sort of mixed originality
and perverseness keep him almost permanently at
loggerheads with the Central Committee, he retains
everybody's respect because of the real heroism with which
he conquers physical disabilities which long ago would have
overwhelmed a less unbreakable spirit. Both Radek and
Larin were going to the Communist Conference at Jaroslavl
which was to consider the new theses of the Central
Committee of the party with regard to Industrial
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