| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lesser Hippias by Plato: evidence, which though in many cases sufficient, is of inferior value.
Proceeding upon these principles we appear to arrive at the conclusion that
nineteen-twentieths of all the writings which have ever been ascribed to
Plato, are undoubtedly genuine. There is another portion of them,
including the Epistles, the Epinomis, the dialogues rejected by the
ancients themselves, namely, the Axiochus, De justo, De virtute, Demodocus,
Sisyphus, Eryxias, which on grounds, both of internal and external
evidence, we are able with equal certainty to reject. But there still
remains a small portion of which we are unable to affirm either that they
are genuine or spurious. They may have been written in youth, or possibly
like the works of some painters, may be partly or wholly the compositions
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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 Princess by Alfred Tennyson: And yet this day (though you should hate me for it)
I came to tell you; found that you had gone,
Ridden to the hills, she likewise: now, I thought,
That surely she will speak; if not, then I:
Did she? These monsters blazoned what they were,
According to the coarseness of their kind,
For thus I hear; and known at last (my work)
And full of cowardice and guilty shame,
I grant in her some sense of shame, she flies;
And I remain on whom to wreak your rage,
I, that have lent my life to build up yours,
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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 Tono Bungay by H. G. Wells: absurdity. There was no argon, no radium, no phagocytes--at
least to my knowledge, and aluminium was a dear, infrequent
metal. The fastest ships in the world went then at nineteen
knots, and no one but a lunatic here and there ever thought it
possible that men might fly.
Many things have happened since then, but the last glance I had
of Wimblehurst two years ago remarked no change whatever in its
pleasant tranquillity. They had not even built any fresh
houses--at least not actually in the town, though about the
station there had been some building. But it was a good place to
do work in, for all its quiescence. I was soon beyond the small
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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 Essays of Francis Bacon by Francis Bacon: it maketh daylight in the understanding, out of
darkness, and confusion of thoughts. Neither is
this to be understood only of faithful counsel,
which a man receiveth from his friend; but before
you come to that, certain it is, that whosoever hath
his mind fraught with many thoughts, his wits
and understanding do clarify and break up, in the
communicating and discoursing with another; he
tosseth his thoughts more easily; he marshalleth
them more orderly, he seeth how they look when
they are turned into words: finally, he waxeth
Essays of Francis Bacon |
