| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes: only in single file from this day forward. A rash man, once
visiting a certain noted institution at South Boston, ventured to
express the sentiment, that man is a rational being. An old woman
who was an attendant in the Idiot School contradicted the
statement, and appealed to the facts before the speaker to disprove
it. The rash man stuck to his hasty generalization,
notwithstanding.
[ - It is my desire to be useful to those with whom I am associated
in my daily relations. I not unfrequently practise the divine art
of music in company with our landlady's daughter, who, as I
mentioned before, is the owner of an accordion. Having myself a
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Critias by Plato: the canals of the interior, and found a way to the sea. The entire country
was divided into sixty thousand lots, each of which was a square of ten
stadia; and the owner of a lot was bound to furnish the sixth part of a
war-chariot, so as to make up ten thousand chariots, two horses and riders
upon them, a pair of chariot-horses without a seat, and an attendant and
charioteer, two hoplites, two archers, two slingers, three stone-shooters,
three javelin-men, and four sailors to make up the complement of twelve
hundred ships.
Each of the ten kings was absolute in his own city and kingdom. The
relations of the different governments to one another were determined by
the injunctions of Poseidon, which had been inscribed by the first kings on
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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 On the Duty of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau: done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done
somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in
its way. For government is an expedient, by which men would
fain succeed in letting one another alone; and, as has been
said, when it is most expedient, the governed are most let
alone by it. Trade and commerce, if they were not made of
india-rubber, would never manage to bounce over obstacles
which legislators are continually putting in their way;
and if one were to judge these men wholly by the effects of
their actions and not partly by their intentions, they would
deserve to be classed and punished with those mischievious
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience |
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 Philebus by Plato: so uncertain in meaning, so void of content, so at variance with common
language and opinion, does not comply adequately with either of our two
requirements? It can neither strike the imaginative faculty, nor give an
explanation of phenomena which is in accordance with our individual
experience. It is indefinite; it supplies only a partial account of human
actions: it is one among many theories of philosophers. It may be
compared with other notions, such as the chief good of Plato, which may be
best expressed to us under the form of a harmony, or with Kant's obedience
to law, which may be summed up under the word 'duty,' or with the Stoical
'Follow nature,' and seems to have no advantage over them. All of these
present a certain aspect of moral truth. None of them are, or indeed
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