| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Symposium by Xenophon: on account of some excess in one direction or defect in the other;
and this is true of every other part of the human body. The same
law of proportion holds in states."--Jowett.
Soc. For this good reason, that a snub nose does not discharge the
office of a barrier;[8] it allows the orbs of sight free range of
vision: whilst your towering nose looks like an insulting wall of
partition to shut off the two eyes.[9]
[8] Or, "the humble snub is not a screen or barricade."
[9] Cf. "Love's Labour Lost," v. 2. 568: Boyet. "Your nose says no,
you are not, for it stands too right"; also "The Song of Solomon,"
vii. 4: "Thy nose is the tower of Lebanon, which looketh toward
The Symposium |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Ion by Plato: rings, which are the poets, depend others, some deriving their inspiration
from Orpheus, others from Musaeus; but the greater number are possessed and
held by Homer. Of whom, Ion, you are one, and are possessed by Homer; and
when any one repeats the words of another poet you go to sleep, and know
not what to say; but when any one recites a strain of Homer you wake up in
a moment, and your soul leaps within you, and you have plenty to say; for
not by art or knowledge about Homer do you say what you say, but by divine
inspiration and by possession; just as the Corybantian revellers too have a
quick perception of that strain only which is appropriated to the God by
whom they are possessed, and have plenty of dances and words for that, but
take no heed of any other. And you, Ion, when the name of Homer is
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake: Would not have bandy children, nor fasting, nor birch.
And God, like a father, rejoicing to see
His children as pleasant and happy as He,
Would have no more quarrel with the Devil or the barrel,
But kiss him, and give him both drink and apparel.
LONDON
I wander through each chartered street,
Near where the chartered Thames does flow,
A mark in every face I meet,
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.
In every cry of every man,
Songs of Innocence and Experience |
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 Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson: as he could."
This puzzled me yet more; and a thought coming into my head, I
asked if he and my father had been twins.
He jumped upon his stool, and the horn spoon fell out of his hand
upon the floor. "What gars ye ask that?" he said, and he caught
me by the breast of the jacket, and looked this time straight
into my eyes: his own were little and light, and bright like a
bird's, blinking and winking strangely.
"What do you mean?" I asked, very calmly, for I was far stronger
than he, and not easily frightened. "Take your hand from my
jacket. This is no way to behave."
Kidnapped |
