| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Herland by Charlotte Gilman: good nature--one of the things most impressive about them all
was the absence of irritability. So far we had only this group to
study, but afterward I found it a common trait.
We had gradually come to feel that we were in the hands of
friends, and very capable ones at that--but we couldn't form any
opinion yet of the general level of these women.
"We want you to teach us all you can," Somel went on, her
firm shapely hands clasped on the table before her, her clear quiet
eyes meeting ours frankly. "And we want to teach you what we
have that is novel and useful. You can well imagine that it is a
wonderful event to us, to have men among us--after two thousand
Herland |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Touchstone by Edith Wharton: in any way you like, but if you're to be happy you've got to be so
in her way--and in her old gowns."
"I could be very happy in Aunt Virginia's old gowns," Miss Trent
interposed.
"Abroad, you mean?"
"I mean wherever I felt that I was helping. And my going abroad
will help."
"Of course--I see that. And I see your considerateness in putting
its advantages negatively."
"Negatively?"
"In dwelling simply on what the going will take you from, not on
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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 Alcibiades I by Plato: have an inferior degree of evidence in their favour. They may have been
supposed by him to be the writings of another, although in the case of
really great works, e.g. the Phaedo, this is not credible; those again
which are quoted but not named, are still more defective in their external
credentials. There may be also a possibility that Aristotle was mistaken,
or may have confused the master and his scholars in the case of a short
writing; but this is inconceivable about a more important work, e.g. the
Laws, especially when we remember that he was living at Athens, and a
frequenter of the groves of the Academy, during the last twenty years of
Plato's life. Nor must we forget that in all his numerous citations from
the Platonic writings he never attributes any passage found in the extant
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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 Odyssey by Homer: eventide. And dark evening came on them at their pastime.
Anon they set up three braziers in the halls, to give them
light, and on these they laid firewood all around, faggots
seasoned long since and sere, and new split with the axe.
And midway by the braziers they placed torches, and the
maids of Odysseus, of the hardy heart, held up the lights
in turn. Then the prince Odysseus of many counsels himself
spake among them saying:
'Ye maidens of Odysseus, the lord so long afar, get ye into
the chambers where the honoured queen abides, and twist the
yarn at her side, and gladden her heart as ye sit in the
The Odyssey |
