| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from All's Well That Ends Well by William Shakespeare: SCENE 2. Rousillon. A room in the COUNTESS'S palace.
[Enter COUNTESS and CLOWN.]
COUNTESS.
Come on, sir; I shall now put you to the height of your
breeding.
CLOWN.
I will show myself highly fed and lowly taught: I know my
business is but to the court.
COUNTESS.
To the court! why, what place make you special, when you
put off that with such contempt? But to the court!
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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 Redheaded Outfield by Zane Grey: off. Mullaney got spiked while sliding and was
out of the game. Ashwell sprained his ankle and
Hirsch broke a finger. Radbourne, my great
pitcher, hurt his arm on a cold day and he could
not get up his old speed. Stringer, who had
batted three hundred and seventy-one and led the
league the year before, struck a bad spell and
could not hit a barn door handed up to him.
Then came the slump. The team suddenly let
down; went to pieces; played ball that would have
disgraced an amateur nine. It was a trying time.
The Redheaded Outfield |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Caesar's Commentaries in Latin by Julius Caesar: Eodem tempore equites nostri levisque armaturae pedites, qui cum iis
una fuerant, quos primo hostium impetu pulsos dixeram, cum se in castra
reciperent, adversis hostibus occurrebant ac rursus aliam in partem fugam
petebant; et calones, qui ab decumana porta ac summo iugo collis nostros
victores flumen transire conspexerant, praedandi causa egressi, cum
respexissent et hostes in nostris castris versari vidissent, praecipites
fugae sese mandabant. Simul eorum qui cum impedimentis veniebant clamor
fremitusque oriebatur, aliique aliam in partem perterriti ferebantur.
Quibus omnibus rebus permoti equites Treveri, quorum inter Gallos virtutis
opinio est singularis, qui auxilii causa a civitate missi ad Caesarem
venerant, cum multitudine hostium castra [nostra] compleri, legiones premi
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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 Theaetetus by Plato: the true and false analogy, and allow the negative as well as the positive
a place in human thought. To such a philosophy Plato, in the Theaetetus,
offers many contributions. He has followed philosophy into the region of
mythology, and pointed out the similarities of opposing phases of thought.
He has also shown that extreme abstractions are self-destructive, and,
indeed, hardly distinguishable from one another. But his intention is not
to unravel the whole subject of knowledge, if this had been possible; and
several times in the course of the dialogue he rejects explanations of
knowledge which have germs of truth in them; as, for example, 'the
resolution of the compound into the simple;' or 'right opinion with a mark
of difference.'
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