| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Art of Writing by Robert Louis Stevenson: One, writing very diligently, and only concerned about the
meaning of his words and the rhythm of his phrases, was
struck into amazement by the eager triumph with which he
cancelled one expression to substitute another. Neither
changed the sense; both being mono-syllables, neither could
affect the scansion; and it was only by looking back on what
he had already written that the mystery was solved: the
second word contained an open A, and for nearly half a page
he had been riding that vowel to the death.
In practice, I should add, the ear is not always so exacting;
and ordinary writers, in ordinary moments, content themselves
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Alexandria and her Schools by Charles Kingsley: Nero, for instance, Epictetus the slave, the regenerator of Stoicism, is
no mere speculator concerning entities and quiddities, correct or
incorrect. He is a slave searching for the secret of freedom, and
finding that it consists in escaping not from a master, but from self:
not to wealth and power, but to Jove. He discovers that Jove is, in
some most mysterious, but most real sense, the Father of men; he learns
to look up to that Father as his guide and friend.
Numenius, again, in the second century, was a man who had evidently
studied Philo. He perceived so deeply, I may say so exaggeratedly, the
analogy between the Jewish and the Platonic assertions of an Absolute
and Eternal Being, side by side with the assertion of a Divine Teacher
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Mad King by Edgar Rice Burroughs: it, gave her a feeling of immense relief and security. The
windows were all too high above the court on one side and
the moat upon the other to cause her the slightest appre-
hension of danger from the outside.
The girl found the boudoir not only beautiful, but ex-
tremely comfortable and cozy. A huge log-fire blazed upon
the hearth, and, though it was summer, its warmth was
most welcome, for the night was chill. Across the room from
the fireplace a full length oil of a former Blentz princess
looked down in arrogance upon the unwilling occupant of
the room. It seemed to the girl that there was an expression
The Mad King |
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 Theaetetus by Plato: knowledge and may be all that I have been denying of him. Was that the
form in which the dream appeared to you?
THEAETETUS: Precisely.
SOCRATES: And you allow and maintain that true opinion, combined with
definition or rational explanation, is knowledge?
THEAETETUS: Exactly.
SOCRATES: Then may we assume, Theaetetus, that to-day, and in this casual
manner, we have found a truth which in former times many wise men have
grown old and have not found?
THEAETETUS: At any rate, Socrates, I am satisfied with the present
statement.
|
