| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Parmenides by Plato: nor in a state of becoming, nor of being destroyed, nor greater, nor less,
nor equal, nor have they experienced anything else of the sort; for, if
they are capable of experiencing any such affection, they will participate
in one and two and three, and odd and even, and in these, as has been
proved, they do not participate, seeing that they are altogether and in
every way devoid of the one.
Very true.
Therefore if one is, the one is all things, and also nothing, both in
relation to itself and to other things.
Certainly.
2.a. Well, and ought we not to consider next what will be the consequence
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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 Second Inaugural Address by Abraham Lincoln: insurgents would rend the Union, even by war; while the government claimed
no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it.
Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration
which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause
of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself
should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less
fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray
to the same God; and each invokes his aid against the other.
It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's
assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces;
but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both
Second Inaugural Address |
