| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Thus Spake Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche: verily, he, the prognosticator, speaketh also what he knoweth: "BEHOLD, IT
COMETH, IT IS NIGH, THE GREAT NOONTIDE!"
Thus spake Zarathustra.
LV. THE SPIRIT OF GRAVITY.
1.
My mouthpiece--is of the people: too coarsely and cordially do I talk for
Angora rabbits. And still stranger soundeth my word unto all ink-fish and
pen-foxes.
My hand--is a fool's hand: woe unto all tables and walls, and whatever
hath room for fool's sketching, fool's scrawling!
My foot--is a horse-foot; therewith do I trample and trot over stick and
Thus Spake Zarathustra |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche: and are fertile in prodigies and monstrosities (also in monstrous
vices). Now look at an aristocratic commonwealth, say an ancient
Greek polis, or Venice, as a voluntary or involuntary contrivance
for the purpose of REARING human beings; there are there men
beside one another, thrown upon their own resources, who want to
make their species prevail, chiefly because they MUST prevail, or
else run the terrible danger of being exterminated. The favour,
the super-abundance, the protection are there lacking under which
variations are fostered; the species needs itself as species, as
something which, precisely by virtue of its hardness, its
uniformity, and simplicity of structure, can in general prevail
Beyond Good and Evil |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Soul of a Bishop by H. G. Wells: use men. For a moment, for an endless age, the bishop bowed
himself in the being and glory of God, felI the glow of the
divine courage and confidence in his marrow, felt himself one
with God.
For a timeless interval....
Never had the bishop had so intense a sense of reality. It
seemed that never before had he known anything real. He knew
certainly that God was his King and master, and that his unworthy
service could be acceptable to God. His mind embraced that idea
with an absolute conviction that was also absolute happiness.
(11)
|
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 Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson: cruise on board of her not long ago to Manu'a, and was delighted.
The goodwill of all on board; the grim playfulness of - quarters,
with the wounded falling down at the word; the ambulances hastening
up and carrying them away; the Captain suddenly crying, 'Fire in
the ward-room!' and the squad hastening forward with the hose; and,
last and most curious spectacle of all, all the men in their dust-
coloured fatigue clothes, at a note of the bugle, falling
simultaneously flat on deck, and the ship proceeding with its
prostrate crew - QUASI to ram an enemy; our dinner at night in a
wild open anchorage, the ship rolling almost to her gunwales, and
showing us alternately her bulwarks up in the sky, and then the
|
