| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: navvy's work. To witness the underground digging is impossible;
but we can, at least, with the exercise of a little patience, see
the rubbish carted away. If I watch my captives, without tiring,
at a very early hour--for the work takes place mostly at night and
at long intervals--in the end I catch them coming up with a load.
Contrary to what I expected, the legs take no part in the carting.
It is the mouth that acts as the barrow. A tiny ball of earth is
held between the fangs and is supported by the palpi, or feelers,
which are little arms employed in the service of the mouth-parts.
The Lycosa descends cautiously from her turret, goes to some
distance to get rid of her burden and quickly dives down again to
The Life of the Spider |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Sophist by Plato: spheres. Everywhere there is a movement of attraction and repulsion going
on--an attraction or repulsion of ideas of which the physical phenomenon
described under a similar name is a figure. Freedom and necessity, mind
and matter, the continuous and the discrete, cause and effect, are
perpetually being severed from one another in thought, only to be
perpetually reunited. The finite and infinite, the absolute and relative
are not really opposed; the finite and the negation of the finite are alike
lost in a higher or positive infinity, and the absolute is the sum or
correlation of all relatives. When this reconciliation of opposites is
finally completed in all its stages, the mind may come back again and
review the things of sense, the opinions of philosophers, the strife of
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Virginian by Owen Wister: reasons.
First, there was her descent. Had she so wished, she could have
belonged to any number of those patriotic societies of which our
American ears have grown accustomed to hear so much. She could
have been enrolled in the Boston Tea Party, the Ethan Allen
Ticonderogas, the Green Mountain Daughters, the Saratoga Sacred
Circle, and the Confederated Colonial Chatelaines. She traced
direct descent from the historic lady whose name she bore, that
Molly Stark who was not a widow after the battle where her lord,
her Captain John, battled so bravely as to send his name
thrilling down through the blood of generations of schoolboys.
The Virginian |
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 Thus Spake Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche: his face with his hand, as if he would wipe out the impression; the same
did also Zarathustra. And when both of them had thus silently composed and
strengthened themselves, they gave each other the hand, as a token that
they wanted once more to recognise each other.
"Welcome hither," said Zarathustra, "thou soothsayer of the great
weariness, not in vain shalt thou once have been my messmate and guest.
Eat and drink also with me to-day, and forgive it that a cheerful old man
sitteth with thee at table!"--"A cheerful old man?" answered the
soothsayer, shaking his head, "but whoever thou art, or wouldst be, O
Zarathustra, thou hast been here aloft the longest time,--in a little while
thy bark shall no longer rest on dry land!"--"Do I then rest on dry land?"
Thus Spake Zarathustra |
