| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Phoenix and the Turtle by William Shakespeare: Hearts remote, yet not asunder;
Distance, and no space was seen
'Twixt the turtle and his queen;
But in them it were a wonder.
So between them love did shine,
That the turtle saw his right
Flaming in the phoenix' sight:
Either was the other's mine.
Property was thus appall'd,
That the self was not the same;
Single nature's double name
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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 Virginian by Owen Wister: But he grinned sheepishly at them, too, because they knew that he
had not always lived in a garden. Then he took them into his
house, where they saw an object crawling on the floor with a
handful of sulphur matches. He began to remove the matches, but
stopped in alarm at the vociferous result; and his wife looked in
from the kitchen to caution him about humoring little
Christopher.
When she beheld the matches she was aghast but when she saw her
baby grow quiet in the arms of the Virginian, she smiled at that
cowpuncher and returned to her kitchen.
Then the Virginian slowly spoke again:"How many little strangers
The Virginian |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Sophist by Plato: category with the not-just--the one cannot be said to have any more
existence than the other.
THEAETETUS: True.
STRANGER: The same may be said of other things; seeing that the nature of
the other has a real existence, the parts of this nature must equally be
supposed to exist.
THEAETETUS: Of course.
STRANGER: Then, as would appear, the opposition of a part of the other,
and of a part of being, to one another, is, if I may venture to say so, as
truly essence as being itself, and implies not the opposite of being, but
only what is other than being.
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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 Allan Quatermain by H. Rider Haggard: to meet you.'
'And it is very glad that we are to see a white face again, let
me tell you,' put in the lady -- a charming and refined-looking
person.
We took off our hats in acknowledgment, and proceeded to introduce
ourselves.
'And now,' said Mr Mackenzie, 'you must all be hungry and weary;
so come on, gentlemen, come on, and right glad we are to see
you. The last white who visited us was Alphonse -- you will
see Alphonse presently -- and that was a year ago.'
Meanwhile we had been walking up the slope of the hill, the lower
Allan Quatermain |
