| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Court Life in China by Isaac Taylor Headland: some unique bits of porcelain. The auctioneer does not "cry" the
wares. Neither buyer nor seller says a word. Nobody knows what
anybody else has offered. The goods are passed out of a closed
room from a high window where the crowd can see them, and then
each one wanting them tries to be first in securing the hand of
the auctioneer, which is ensconced in his long sleeve, where, by
squeezing his fingers, they tell him how much they will give for
the particular piece. It is the only real case of "talking in the
sleeve' I have ever seen, and each piece is sold to the first
person offering a fair profit on the money invested, though he
might get much more by allowing them to bid against each other.
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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 Koran: The reward of those who make war against God and His Apostle, and
strive after violence in the earth, is only that they shall be
slaughtered or crucified, or their hands cut off and their feet on
alternate sides, or that they shall be banished from the land;- that
is a disgrace for them in this world, and for them in the next is
mighty woe; save for those who repent before ye have them in your
power, for know ye that God is forgiving, merciful.
O ye who believe! fear God and crave the means to approach Him,
and be strenuous in His way, haply ye will prosper then.
Verily, those who disbelieve, even though they had what is in the
earth, all of it, and the like thereof with it, to offer as a ransom
The Koran |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Hiero by Xenophon: we are affected pleasurably or painfully, as the case may be:
sometimes, if I am right in my conclusion, through the mind itself
alone; at other times . . ."
[10] Or, "they are mental partly, partly physical."
[11] Lit. "the incidents of waking life present sensations of a more
vivid character."
To this statement Hiero made answer: And I, for my part, O Simonides,
would find it hard to state, outside the list of things which you have
named yourself, in what respect the despot can have other channels of
perception.[12] So that up to this point I do not see that the
despotic life differs in any way at all from that of common people.
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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 Tanach: 1_Chronicles 1: 6 And the sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, and Diphath, and Togarmah.
1_Chronicles 1: 7 And the sons of Javan: Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Rodanim.
1_Chronicles 1: 8 The sons of Ham: Cush, and Mizraim, Put, and Canaan.
1_Chronicles 1: 9 And the sons of Cush: Seba, and Havilah, and Sabta, and Raama, and Sabteca. And the sons of Raama: Sheba, and Dedan.
1_Chronicles 1: 10 And Cush begot Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one in the earth.
1_Chronicles 1: 11 And Mizraim begot Ludim, and Anamim, and Lehabim, and Naphtuhim,
1_Chronicles 1: 12 and Pathrusim, and Casluhim--from whence came the Philistines--and Caphtorim.
1_Chronicles 1: 13 And Canaan begot Zidon his first-born, and Heth;
1_Chronicles 1: 14 and the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgashite;
1_Chronicles 1: 15 and the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite;
1_Chronicles 1: 16 and the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite.
The Tanach |
