| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Crito by Plato: evil; in his own words, 'they cannot make a man wise or foolish.'
This little dialogue is a perfect piece of dialectic, in which granting the
'common principle,' there is no escaping from the conclusion. It is
anticipated at the beginning by the dream of Socrates and the parody of
Homer. The personification of the Laws, and of their brethren the Laws in
the world below, is one of the noblest and boldest figures of speech which
occur in Plato.
CRITO
by
Plato
Translated by Benjamin Jowett
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton: Procurator and the other a grandee of Spain. But my father is a
gambler too--oh, such fortunes as are squandered over the arcade
yonder! And so--and so--don't turn, I implore you--oh, do you
begin to see my meaning?"
She broke off sobbing, and it took all his strength to keep his
eyes from her.
"Go on," he said.
"Will you not understand? Oh, I would say anything to save you!
You don't know us Venetians--we're all to be bought for a price.
It is not only the brides who are marketable--sometimes the
husbands sell themselves too. And they think you rich--my father
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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 Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin by Robert Louis Stevenson: that Fleeming enjoyed, as we may say, for nothing, that fine thrill
of expectant valour with which he had sallied forth into the mob.
'I never before felt myself so decidedly somebody, instead of
nobody,' he wrote.
Outside as inside the works, he was 'pretty merry and well to do,'
zealous in study, welcome to many friends, unwearied in loving-
kindness to his mother. For some time he spent three nights a week
with Dr. Bell, 'working away at certain geometrical methods of
getting the Greek architectural proportions': a business after
Fleeming's heart, for he was never so pleased as when he could
marry his two devotions, art and science. This was besides, in all
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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 Road to Oz by L. Frank Baum: head and his long ears. "What a misfortune--what a great misfortune!
Give me back my own head, you stupid king--if you love me at all!"
"Don't you like it?" asked the King, surprised.
"Hee-haw! I hate it! Take it away, quick!" said the shaggy man.
"But I can't do that," was the reply. "My magic works only one way.
I can DO things, but I can't UNdo them. You'll have to find the
Truth Pond, and bathe in its water, in order to get back your own
head. But I advise you not to do that. This head is much more
beautiful than the old one."
"That's a matter of taste," said Dorothy.
"Where is the Truth Pond?" asked the shaggy man, earnestly.
The Road to Oz |
