| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 2 by Alexis de Toqueville: large towns of New England, had passed, almost without any
intermediate stage, from the wealthy abode of their parents to a
comfortless hovel in a forest. Fever, solitude, and a tedious
life had not broken the springs of their courage. Their features
were impaired and faded, but their looks were firm: they appeared
to be at once sad and resolute. I do not doubt that these young
American women had amassed, in the education of their early
years, that inward strength which they displayed under these
circumstances. The early culture of the girl may still therefore
be traced, in the United States, under the aspect of marriage:
her part is changed, her habits are different, but her character
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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 Golden Sayings of Epictetus by Epictetus: If I show you, that you lack just what is most important and
necessary to happiness, that hitherto your attention has been
bestowed on everything rather than that which claims it most;
and, to crown all, that you know neither what God nor Man is--
neither what Good or Evil is: why, that you are ignorant of
everything else, perhaps you may bear to be told; but to hear
that you know nothing of yourself, how could you submit to that?
How could you stand your ground and suffer that to be proved?
Clearly not at all. You instantly turn away in wrath. Yet what
harm have I done to you? Unless indeed the mirror harms the
ill-favoured man by showing him to himself just as he is; unless the
The Golden Sayings of Epictetus |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Father Sergius by Leo Tolstoy: attained all there was to attain, there was nothing more to do
and his spiritual drowsiness increased. During this time he
heard of his mother's death and his sister Varvara's marriage,
but both events were matters of indifference to him. His whole
attention and his whole interest were concentrated on his inner
life.
In the fourth year of his priesthood, during which the Bishop had
been particularly kind to him, the starets told him that he ought
not to decline it if he were offered an appointment to higher
duties. Then monastic ambition, the very thing he had found so
repulsive in other monks, arose within him. He was assigned to a
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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 Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: add that there stand involved in them certain persons whom I had
hitherto believed to be honourable. Of the object aimed at by those
who have complicated matters to the point of making their resolution
almost impossible by ordinary methods I am aware; as also I am aware
of the identity of the ringleader, despite the skill with which he has
sought to conceal his share in the scandal. But the principal point
is, that I propose to decide these matters, not by formal documentary
process, but by the more summary process of court-martial, and that I
hope, when the circumstances have been laid before his Imperial
Majesty, to receive from him authority to adopt the course which I
have mentioned. For I conceive that when it has become impossible to
Dead Souls |
