| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Sophist by Plato: THEAETETUS: What do you mean?
STRANGER: When any one makes himself appear like another in his figure or
his voice, imitation is the name for this part of the phantastic art.
THEAETETUS: Yes.
STRANGER: Let this, then, be named the art of mimicry, and this the
province assigned to it; as for the other division, we are weary and will
give that up, leaving to some one else the duty of making the class and
giving it a suitable name.
THEAETETUS: Let us do as you say--assign a sphere to the one and leave the
other.
STRANGER: There is a further distinction, Theaetetus, which is worthy of
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Unconscious Comedians by Honore de Balzac: to accentuate the infamous head-covering to which France is now
enslaved until I succeed in overthrowing it.
So saying he pointed to the hideous hat in vogue at the present day.
"Behold the enemy, messieurs," he continued. "How is it that the
wittiest and most satirical people on earth will consent to wear upon
their heads a bit of stove-pipe?--as one of our great writers has
called it. Here are some of the infections I have been able to give to
those atrocious lines," he added, pointing to a number of his
creations. "But, although I am able to conform them to the character
of each wearer--for, as you see, there are the hats of a doctor, a
grocer, a dandy, an artist, a fat man, a thin man, and so forth--the
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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 Democracy In America, Volume 1 by Alexis de Toqueville: laws, and especially manners, may exist which will allow a
democratic people to remain free. But I am very far from
thinking that we ought to follow the example of the American
democracy, and copy the means which it has employed to attain its
ends; for I am well aware of the influence which the nature of a
country and its political precedents exercise upon a
constitution; and I should regard it as a great misfortune for
mankind if liberty were to exist all over the world under the
same forms.
But I am of opinion that if we do not succeed in gradually
introducing democratic institutions into France, and if we
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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 The Divine Comedy (translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) by Dante Alighieri: Perils,' I said, 'have come unto the West,
To this so inconsiderable vigil
Which is remaining of your senses still
Be ye unwilling to deny the knowledge,
Following the sun, of the unpeopled world.
Consider ye the seed from which ye sprang;
Ye were not made to live like unto brutes,
But for pursuit of virtue and of knowledge.'
So eager did I render my companions,
With this brief exhortation, for the voyage,
That then I hardly could have held them back.
The Divine Comedy (translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) |
