| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Tattine by Ruth Ogden [Mrs. Charles W. Ide]: a few ways, and never to really change their nature.
"Setters have hunted rabbits always, kittens have preyed upon birds, and
donkeys, as a rule, have stood still whenever they wanted to."
"But why, I wonder, were they made so?"
"You nor I nor nohodv knows, Tattine, but isn't it fine that for some reason
we are made differently? If we will only be reasonable and try hard enough and
in the right way, we can overcome anything."
"It's a little like a sermon, Grandma Luty."
"It's a little bit of a one then, for it's over, but you go this minute and
give Betsy and Doctor a good hard hug, and tell them you forgive them."
And Tattine did as she was bid, and Doctor and Betsy, who had sadly missed her
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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 Statesman by Plato: original Sophist, but with the sophistry of the schools of philosophy,
which are making reasoning impossible; and is driven by them out of the
regions of transcendental speculation back into the path of common sense.
A logical or psychological phase takes the place of the doctrine of Ideas
in his mind. He is constantly dwelling on the importance of regular
classification, and of not putting words in the place of things. He has
banished the poets, and is beginning to use a technical language. He is
bitter and satirical, and seems to be sadly conscious of the realities of
human life. Yet the ideal glory of the Platonic philosophy is not
extinguished. He is still looking for a city in which kings are either
philosophers or gods (compare Laws).
Statesman |
