| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tales of Unrest by Joseph Conrad: She did not flinch. He perceived with fear that everything around him
was still. She did not move a hair's breadth; his own body did not
stir. An imperturbable calm enveloped their two motionless figures,
the house, the town, all the world--and the trifling tempest of his
feelings. The violence of the short tumult within him had been such as
could well have shattered all creation; and yet nothing was changed.
He faced his wife in the familiar room in his own house. It had not
fallen. And right and left all the innumerable dwellings, standing
shoulder to shoulder, had resisted the shock of his passion, had
presented, unmoved, to the loneliness of his trouble, the grim silence
of walls, the impenetrable and polished discretion of closed doors and
Tales of Unrest |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Cavalry General by Xenophon: is no alternative--either men must till their fields or live on the
tillage of others, otherwise how will they find the means either of
living or of obtaining peace?[11]
[11] Cf. "Econ." v. 7.
Here, too, is a maxim to engrave upon the memory: in charging a
superior force, never to leave a difficult tract of ground in the rear
of your attack, since there is all the difference in the world between
a stumble in flight and a stumble in pursuit.
There is another precaution which I feel called upon to note. Some
generals,[12] in attacking a force which they imagine to be inferior
to their own, will advance with a ridiculously insufficient force,[13]
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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 Charmides and Other Poems by Oscar Wilde: In sweet reluctance through the tangled green;
Some other head must wear that aureole,
For I am hers who loves not any man
Whose white and stainless bosom bears the sign Gorgonian.
Let Venus go and chuck her dainty page,
And kiss his mouth, and toss his curly hair,
With net and spear and hunting equipage
Let young Adonis to his tryst repair,
But me her fond and subtle-fashioned spell
Delights no more, though I could win her dearest citadel.
Ay, though I were that laughing shepherd boy
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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: with one who does not wanton in luxury or languish in effeminacy,[18]
but who displays to all his strength, his hardihood, his courage, and
sobriety of soul. To be enamoured of such qualities as these is a
proof itself of a true lover's nature.
[17] Lit. "many a foreign visitor likewise."
[18] See the Attic type of character, as drawn by Pericles, Thuc. ii.
40.
Whether indeed Aphrodite be one or twain[19] in personality, the
heavenly and the earthly, I cannot tell, for Zeus, who is one and
indivisible, bears many titles.[20] But this thing I know, that these
twain have separate altars, shrines, and sacrifices,[21] as befits
The Symposium |
