| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lysis by Plato: which he would not suffer from himself? And if neither can be of any use
to the other, how can they be loved by one another? Can they now?
They cannot.
And can he who is not loved be a friend?
Certainly not.
But say that the like is not the friend of the like in so far as he is
like; still the good may be the friend of the good in so far as he is good?
True.
But then again, will not the good, in so far as he is good, be sufficient
for himself? Certainly he will. And he who is sufficient wants nothing--
that is implied in the word sufficient.
Lysis |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Twilight Land by Howard Pyle: before the hunting-party returned he climbed the walls of the
garden, and so came to the wonderful palace that the soldier had
built out of nothing at all, and there stood three men keeping
guard so that no one might enter.
But little that troubled the magician. He began to mutter spells
and strange words, and all of a sudden he was gone, and in his
place was a great black ant, for he had changed himself into an
ant. In he ran through a crack of the door (and mischief has got
into many a man's house through a smaller hole for the matter of
that). In and out ran the ant through one room and another, and
up and down and here and there, until at last in a far-away part
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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 Timaeus by Plato: appears right, and the left left, when the position of one of the two
concurring lights is reversed; and this happens when the mirror is concave
and its smooth surface repels the right stream of vision to the left side,
and the left to the right (He is speaking of two kinds of mirrors, first
the plane, secondly the concave; and the latter is supposed to be placed,
first horizontally, and then vertically.). Or if the mirror be turned
vertically, then the concavity makes the countenance appear to be all
upside down, and the lower rays are driven upwards and the upper downwards.
All these are to be reckoned among the second and co-operative causes which
God, carrying into execution the idea of the best as far as possible, uses
as his ministers. They are thought by most men not to be the second, but
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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 King Henry VI by William Shakespeare: What danger or what sorrow can befall thee
So long as Edward is thy constant friend
And their true sovereign, whom they must obey?
Nay, whom they shall obey, and love thee too,
Unless they seek for hatred at my hands;
Which if they do, yet will I keep thee safe,
And they shall feel the vengeance of my wrath.
GLOSTER.
[Aside.] I hear, yet say not much, but think the more.
[Enter a Messenger.]
KING EDWARD.
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