| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Fantastic Fables by Ambrose Bierce: ONE day in winter a hungry Grasshopper applied to an Ant for some
of the food which they had stored.
"Why," said the Ant, "did you not store up some food for yourself,
instead of singing all the time?"
"So I did," said the Grasshopper; "so I did; but you fellows broke
in and carried it all away."
The Fisher and the Fished
A FISHERMAN who had caught a very small Fish was putting it in his
basket when it said:
"I pray you put me back into the stream, for I can be of no use to
you; the gods do not eat fish."
Fantastic Fables |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Sportsman by Xenophon: and now forwards to the . . ." Reading {kai apo ton anablemmaton
kai emblemmaton ton epi tas kathedras tou l.}, or if with L. D.,
{kai apo ton a. kai emblemmaton eis ton ulen kai anastremmaton ton
epi tas k.}, transl. "now looking back at the huntsman and now
staring hard into the covert, and again right-about-face in the
direction of the hare's sitting-place."
[17] Lit. "form"; "the place where puss is seated."
Once she is off, the pack should pursue with vigour.[18] They must not
relax their hold, but with yelp and bark full cry insist on keeping
close and dogging puss at every turn. Twist for twist and turn for
turn, they, too, must follow in a succession of swift and brilliant
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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 1984 by George Orwell: be complete when the language is perfect. Newspeak is Ingsoc and Ingsoc
is Newspeak,' he added with a sort of mystical satisfaction. 'Has it ever
occurred to you, Winston, that by the year 2050, at the very latest, not a
single human being will be alive who could understand such a conversation
as we are having now?'
'Except----' began Winston doubtfully, and he stopped.
It had been on the tip of his tongue to say 'Except the proles,' but he
checked himself, not feeling fully certain that this remark was not in
some way unorthodox. Syme, however, had divined what he was about to say.
'The proles are not human beings,' he said carelessly. 'By 2050--earlier,
probably--all real knowledge of Oldspeak will have disappeared. The whole
1984 |
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 Charmides by Plato: language; and genders are attributed to things as well as persons according
to their various degrees of strength and weakness; or from fanciful
resemblances to the male or female form, or some analogy too subtle to be
discovered. When the gender of any object was once fixed, a similar gender
was naturally assigned to similar objects, or to words of similar
formation. This use of genders in the denotation of objects or ideas not
only affects the words to which genders are attributed, but the words with
which they are construed or connected, and passes into the general
character of the style. Hence arises a difficulty in translating Greek
into English which cannot altogether be overcome. Shall we speak of the
soul and its qualities, of virtue, power, wisdom, and the like, as feminine
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