| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Timaeus by Plato: the Phaedrus and Republic; and the soul has a view of the heavens in a
prior state of being. The ideas also remain, but they have become types in
nature, forms of men, animals, birds, fishes. And the attribution of evil
to physical causes accords with the doctrine which he maintains in the Laws
respecting the involuntariness of vice.
The style and plan of the Timaeus differ greatly from that of any other of
the Platonic dialogues. The language is weighty, abrupt, and in some
passages sublime. But Plato has not the same mastery over his instrument
which he exhibits in the Phaedrus or Symposium. Nothing can exceed the
beauty or art of the introduction, in which he is using words after his
accustomed manner. But in the rest of the work the power of language seems
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from All's Well That Ends Well by William Shakespeare: LAFEU.
Your distinction?
CLOWN.
I would cozen the man of his wife, and do his service.
LAFEU.
So you were a knave at his service, indeed.
CLOWN.
And I would give his wife my bauble, sir, to do her service.
LAFEU.
I will subscribe for thee; thou art both knave and fool.
CLOWN.
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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 The Iliad by Homer: sulphur; this done he rinsed it clean water, and after he had
washed his hands he drew wine. Then he stood in the middle of the
court and prayed, looking towards heaven, and making his
drink-offering of wine; nor was he unseen of Jove whose joy is in
thunder. "King Jove," he cried, "lord of Dodona, god of the
Pelasgi, who dwellest afar, you who hold wintry Dodona in your
sway, where your prophets the Selli dwell around you with their
feet unwashed and their couches made upon the ground--if you
heard me when I prayed to you aforetime, and did me honour while
you sent disaster on the Achaeans, vouchsafe me now the
fulfilment of yet this further prayer. I shall stay here where my
The Iliad |
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 Art of Writing by Robert Louis Stevenson: a quiet, plain, poor, hum-drum couple it would seem - but
pathetic too, as the last of that stirring and brave house -
and, to the country folk, faintly terrible from some deformed
traditions.'
'Yes,' said Mr. Thomson. Henry Graeme Durie, the last lord,
died in 1820; his sister, the Honourable Miss Katherine
Durie, in '27; so much I know; and by what I have been going
over the last few days, they were what you say, decent, quiet
people and not rich. To say truth, it was a letter of my
lord's that put me on the search for the packet we are going
to open this evening. Some papers could not be found; and he
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