| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Charmides by Plato: forbear, and I am convinced of the truth of the suspicion which I
entertained at the time, that Charmides had heard this answer about
temperance from Critias. And Charmides, who did not want to answer
himself, but to make Critias answer, tried to stir him up. He went on
pointing out that he had been refuted, at which Critias grew angry, and
appeared, as I thought, inclined to quarrel with him; just as a poet might
quarrel with an actor who spoiled his poems in repeating them; so he looked
hard at him and said--
Do you imagine, Charmides, that the author of this definition of temperance
did not understand the meaning of his own words, because you do not
understand them?
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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 Man against the Sky by Edwin Arlington Robinson: Better say you had to know
What you have learned.
And that's over. Here you are,
Battered by the past.
Time will have his little scar,
But the wound won't last.
Nor shall harrowing surprise
Find a world without its eyes
If a star fades when the skies
Are overcast.
God knows there are lives enough,
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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 Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: Secretary, will--"
"Pardon me," expostulated Chichikov, "but that procedure will take up
a great deal of time. Why need I put the matter into writing at all?
It is simply this. I want a few souls which are--well, which are, so
to speak, dead."
"Very good," commented the Colonel. "Do you write down in your
Statement of Plea that the souls which you desire are, 'so to speak,
dead.'"
"But what would be the use of my doing so? Though the souls are dead,
my purpose requires that they should be represented as alive."
"Very good," again commented the Colonel. "Do you write down in your
Dead Souls |
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 Thuvia, Maid of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: that by persisting in his suggestion he could eventually make
of me a permanent suggestion in the minds of all creatures.
"Yesterday he succeeded, but at such a time! It must
have come all unknown to him, as it came to me without
my knowledge, as, with my horde of yelling bowmen, I
pursued the fleeing Torquasians back to their ochre plains.
"As darkness settled and the time came for us to
fade once more into thin air, I suddenly found myself
alone upon the edge of the great plain which lies yonder
at the foot of the low hills.
"My men were gone back to the nothingness from which
Thuvia, Maid of Mars |
