| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Laches by Plato: liable to be drawn into an argument; and whatever subject he may start, he
will be continually carried round and round by him, until at last he finds
that he has to give an account both of his present and past life; and when
he is once entangled, Socrates will not let him go until he has completely
and thoroughly sifted him. Now I am used to his ways; and I know that he
will certainly do as I say, and also that I myself shall be the sufferer;
for I am fond of his conversation, Lysimachus. And I think that there is
no harm in being reminded of any wrong thing which we are, or have been,
doing: he who does not fly from reproof will be sure to take more heed of
his after-life; as Solon says, he will wish and desire to be learning so
long as he lives, and will not think that old age of itself brings wisdom.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Apology by Xenophon: obvious that the praise I get from gods and men is justly earned? And
yet in spite of all, Meletus, you will have it that by such habits I
corrupt the young. We know, I fancy, what such corrupting influences
are; and perhaps you will tell us if you know of any one who, under my
influence, has been changed from a religous into an irreligious man;
who, from being sober-minded, has become prodigal; from being a
moderate drinker has become a wine-bibber and a drunkard; from being a
lover of healthy honest toil has become effeminate, or under the
thrall of some other wicked pleasure."
[28] Lit. "whom do you know," and so throughout.
[29] Cf. Plat. "Phaed." 66 C.
The Apology |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from In the Cage by Henry James: that was rather flat, she preposterously produced her own. "Well,
wait a bit. Where I am I still see things." And she talked to him
even worse, if possible, than she had talked to Jordan.
Little by little, to her own stupefaction, she caught that he was
trying to take it as she meant it and that he was neither
astonished nor angry. Oh the British tradesman--this gave her an
idea of his resources! Mr. Mudge would be angry only with a person
who, like the drunken soldier in the shop, should have an
unfavourable effect on business. He seemed positively to enter,
for the time and without the faintest flash of irony or ripple of
laughter, into the whimsical grounds of her enjoyment of Cocker's
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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 Travels with a Donkey in the Cevenne by Robert Louis Stevenson: At night, under the conduct of my kind Irishman, I took my place in
the gallery to hear compline and SALVE REGINA, with which the
Cistercians bring every day to a conclusion. There were none of
those circumstances which strike the Protestant as childish or as
tawdry in the public offices of Rome. A stern simplicity,
heightened by the romance of the surroundings, spoke directly to
the heart. I recall the whitewashed chapel, the hooded figures in
the choir, the lights alternately occluded and revealed, the strong
manly singing, the silence that ensued, the sight of cowled heads
bowed in prayer, and then the clear trenchant beating of the bell,
breaking in to show that the last office was over and the hour of
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