| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Eryxias by Platonic Imitator: that silver is useful because it enables us to supply our bodily needs?
ERYXIAS: We do.
SOCRATES: Then if these arts are reckoned among things useful, the arts
are wealth for the same reason as gold and silver are, for, clearly, the
possession of them gives wealth. Yet a little while ago we found it
difficult to accept the argument which proved that the wisest are the
wealthiest. But now there seems no escape from this conclusion. Suppose
that we are asked, 'Is a horse useful to everybody?' will not our reply be,
'No, but only to those who know how to use a horse?'
ERYXIAS: Certainly.
SOCRATES: And so, too, physic is not useful to every one, but only to him
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Christ in Flanders by Honore de Balzac: without seeming astonished by it, he walked on the water. The worn-out
sinner, believing in the omnipotence of God, also followed the
stranger.
The two peasants said to each other, "If they are walking on the sea,
why should we not do as they do?" and they also arose and hastened
after the others. Thomas tried to follow, but his faith tottered; he
sank in the sea more than once, and rose again, but the third time he
also walked on the sea. The bold steersman clung like a remora to the
wreck of his boat. The miser had had faith, and had risen to go, but
he tried to take his gold with him, and it was his gold that dragged
him down to the bottom. The learned man had scoffed at the charlatan
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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 Cousin Pons by Honore de Balzac: "Yes, sir," he said, "I have come on behalf of Mme. la Presidente de
Marville, her husband, and her daughter, to express their regret. They
learned quite by accident that you are ill, and they would like to
nurse you themselves. They want you to go to Marville and get well
there. Mme. la Vicomtesse Popinot, the little Cecile that you love so
much, will be your nurse. She took your part with her mother. She
convinced Mme. de Marville that she had made a mistake."
"So my next-of-kin have sent you to me, have they?" Pons exclaimed
indignantly, "and sent the best judge and expert in all Paris with you
to show you the way? Oh! a nice commission!" he cried, bursting into
wild laughter. "You have come to value my pictures and curiosities, my
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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 Reason Discourse by Rene Descartes: that, according to the rules of mechanics which are the same with those of
nature, when many objects tend at once to the same point where there is
not sufficient room for all (as is the case with the parts of the blood
which flow forth from the left cavity of the heart and tend towards the
brain), the weaker and less agitated parts must necessarily be driven
aside from that point by the stronger which alone in this way reach it I
had expounded all these matters with sufficient minuteness in the treatise
which I formerly thought of publishing. And after these, I had shown what
must be the fabric of the nerves and muscles of the human body to give the
animal spirits contained in it the power to move the members, as when we
see heads shortly after they have been struck off still move and bite the
Reason Discourse |
