| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Under the Red Robe by Stanley Weyman: discovered his loss. Then he had searched for the
precious sachet, missed it, and returned hot-foot on his
tracks.
The longer I considered the circumstances the more
certain I was that I had hit on the true solution; and
all that night I sat wakeful in the darkness, pondering
what I should do. The stones, unset as they were, could
never be identified, never be claimed. The channel by
which they had come to my hands could never be traced.
To all intents they were mine; mine, to do with as I
pleased! Fifteen thousand crowns, perhaps twenty
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from On Revenues by Xenophon: administration of the state within the limits of a sum equivalent to
that which your dues[49] realised before the peace. That done, you are
at liberty to take any surplus sum, whether directly traceable to the
peace itself, or to the more courteous treatment of our resident
aliens and traders, or to the growth of the imports and exports,
coincident with the collecting together of larger masses of human
beings, or to an augmentation of harbour[50] and market dues: this
surplus, I say, however derived, you should take and invest[51] so as
to bring in the greatest revenue.[52]
[40] Or, "sinking fund."
[41] {athrooi}--"in a body." It is a military phrase, I think. In
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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 Hermione's Little Group of Serious Thinkers by Don Marquis: But I must hurry -- I have to do some shopping.
Clothes are a bore, aren't they?
HERMIONE ON PSYCHICAL RESEARCH
SPIRITUALISM is becoming quite the thing,
isn't it?
Dear Sir Oliver Lodge has been proving
some more things quite recently, you know. How
anyone could doubt a man with such a lovely head
and face I can't imagine.
Spiritualism and Spiritism are quite different, you
know. It has been a long time, really, since Spir-
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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 Phaedo by Plato: that he is order, that he is the very progress of which we were speaking;
and that wherever these qualities are present, whether in the human soul or
in the order of nature, there is God. We might still see him everywhere,
if we had not been mistakenly seeking for him apart from us, instead of in
us; away from the laws of nature, instead of in them. And we become united
to him not by mystical absorption, but by partaking, whether consciously or
unconsciously, of that truth and justice and love which he himself is.
Thus the belief in the immortality of the soul rests at last on the belief
in God. If there is a good and wise God, then there is a progress of
mankind towards perfection; and if there is no progress of men towards
perfection, then there is no good and wise God. We cannot suppose that the
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