| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Republic by Plato: likely to be affected, my dear Socrates,--those of them, I mean, who are
quickwitted, and, like bees on the wing, light on every flower, and from
all that they hear are prone to draw conclusions as to what manner of
persons they should be and in what way they should walk if they would make
the best of life? Probably the youth will say to himself in the words of
Pindar--
'Can I by justice or by crooked ways of deceit ascend a loftier tower which
may be a fortress to me all my days?'
For what men say is that, if I am really just and am not also thought just
profit there is none, but the pain and loss on the other hand are
unmistakeable. But if, though unjust, I acquire the reputation of justice,
The Republic |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Child of Storm by H. Rider Haggard: I rode on. I could not help riding on, although I knew it would be
safer to keep away. I reached the edge of that big rock. Saduko and
Umbelazi were fighting there.
In ordinary circumstances, strong and active as he was, Saduko would
have had no chance against the most powerful Zulu living. But the
prince was utterly exhausted; his sides were going like a blacksmith's
bellows, or those of a fat eland bull that has been galloped to a
standstill. Moreover, he seemed to me to be distraught with grief, and,
lastly, he had no shield left, nothing but an assegai.
A stab from Saduko's spear, which he partially parried, wounded him
slightly on the head, and cut loose the fillet of his ostrich plume,
Child of Storm |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Large Catechism by Dr. Martin Luther: that even in the mind of the heathen to have a god means to trust and
believe. But their error is this that their trust is false and wrong
for it is not placed in the only God, besides whom there is truly no
God in heaven or upon earth. Therefore the heathen really make their
self-invented notions and dreams of God an idol, and put their trust in
that which is altogether nothing. Thus it is with all idolatry; for it
consists not merely in erecting an image and worshiping it, but rather
in the heart, which stands gaping at something else, and seeks help and
consolation from creatures saints, or devils, and neither cares for
God, nor looks to Him for so much good as to believe that He is willing
to help, neither believes that whatever good it experiences comes from
|
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 Sylvie and Bruno by Lewis Carroll: Bruno laughed merrily. I was glad to see he had quite recovered from
the terrible scene he had gone through. "Oh no, it won't!" he said.
"When we go small, it'll go small!"
"And then it'll go straight to the Professor," Sylvie added, "and you
won't be able to use it anymore: so you'd better use it all you can, now.
We must go small when the sun sets. Good-bye!"
"Good-bye!" cried Bruno. But their voices sounded very far away, and,
when I looked round, both children had disappeared.
"And it wants only two hours to sunset!" I said as I strolled on.
"I must make the best of my time!"
CHAPTER 23.
Sylvie and Bruno |
