| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tom Sawyer Abroad by Mark Twain: Great Sahara, you want to be particular and stay up
in the coolish weather. So we reckoned we would
drop down into the lion market and see how we could
make out there.
We hauled in the ladder and dropped down till we
was just above the reach of the animals, then we let
down a rope with a slip-knot in it and hauled up a
dead lion, a small tender one, then yanked up a cub
tiger. We had to keep the congregation off with the
revolver, or they would 'a' took a hand in the proceed-
ings and helped.
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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 Iliad by Homer: headlong from the car, and his eyes were closed in darkness.
Idomeneus speared Erymas in the mouth; the bronze point of the
spear went clean through it beneath the brain, crashing in among
the white bones and smashing them up. His teeth were all of them
knocked out and the blood came gushing in a stream from both his
eyes; it also came gurgling up from his mouth and nostrils, and
the darkness of death enfolded him round about.
Thus did these chieftains of the Danaans each of them kill his
man. As ravening wolves seize on kids or lambs, fastening on them
when they are alone on the hillsides and have strayed from the
main flock through the carelessness of the shepherd--and when the
The Iliad |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Confidence by Henry James: for him now, however; Bernard saw no reason to doubt that,
and certainly she would have been a very flimsy creature indeed
if she had not been touched by his inexhaustible kindness.
She had every conceivable indulgence, and if she married
him for his money, at least she had got what she wanted.
She led the most agreeable life conceivable, and she ought to be
in high good-humor. It was impossible to have a prettier house,
a prettier carriage, more jewels and laces for the adornment
of a plump little person. It was impossible to go to
more parties, to give better dinners, to have fewer privations
or annoyances. Bernard was so much struck with all this that,
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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 Symposium by Xenophon: "Themist." 15; cf. Polyaen. "Strat." iii. 11. 2. Just as
Themistocles had won the battle of Salamis by help of Iacchus on
the 16th Boedromion, the first day of the mysteries, so Chabrias
won the sea-fight of Naxos by help of the day itself, {to 'Alade
mustai}, 376 B.C.
But if I seem to any of you to indulge a vein more serious than befits
the wine-cup, marvel not. It has long been my wont to share our city's
passion for noble-natured souls, alert and emulous in pursuit of
virtue.
He ended, and, while the others continued to discuss the theme of his
discourse, Autolycus sat regarding Callias. That other, glancing the
The Symposium |
