| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Alcibiades II by Platonic Imitator: ALCIBIADES: No.)
SOCRATES:--If, then, you went indoors, and seeing him, did not know him,
but thought that he was some one else, would you venture to slay him?
ALCIBIADES: Most decidedly not (it seems to me). (These words are omitted
in several MSS.)
SOCRATES: For you designed to kill, not the first who offered, but
Pericles himself?
ALCIBIADES: Certainly.
SOCRATES: And if you made many attempts, and each time failed to recognize
Pericles, you would never attack him?
ALCIBIADES: Never.
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Master of the World by Jules Verne: use.
In the bow there rose a third hatch-way which presumably covered the
quarters occupied by the two men when the "Terror" was at rest.
At the stern a similar hatch gave access probably to the cabin of the
captain, who remained unseen. When these different hatches were shut
down, they had a sort of rubber covering which closed them
hermetically tight, so that the water could not reach the interior
when the boat plunged beneath the ocean.
As to the motor, which imparted such prodigious speed to the machine,
I could see nothing of it, nor of the propeller. However, the fast
speeding boat left behind it only a long, smooth wake. The extreme
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte: without offending him,' replied I, smiling placidly; for my inward
happiness made that amusing, which would have wounded me at another
time.
The carriage was now in motion. Miss Murray bent forwards, and
looked out of the window as we were passing Mr. Weston. He was
pacing homewards along the causeway, and did not turn his head.
'Stupid ass!' cried she, throwing herself back again in the seat.
'You don't know what you've lost by not looking this way!'
'What has he lost?'
'A bow from me, that would have raised him to the seventh heaven!'
I made no answer. I saw she was out of humour, and I derived a
Agnes Grey |
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 Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy: To cut him off from his past I have determined to keep silence.
I am sickened of ecclesiastical work now; and I shouldn't like to
accept it, if offered me!"
"You ought to have learnt classic. Gothic is barbaric art, after all.
Pugin was wrong, and Wren was right. Remember the interior of Christminster
Cathedral--almost the first place in which we looked in each other's faces.
Under the picturesqueness of those Norman details one can see the grotesque
childishness of uncouth people trying to imitate the vanished Roman forms,
remembered by dim tradition only."
"Yes--you have half-converted me to that view by what you have said before.
But one can work, and despise what one does. I must do something, if not
Jude the Obscure |
