| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Familiar Studies of Men and Books by Robert Louis Stevenson: details of his life, they were, by the nature of the case and
my own PARTI-PRIS, read even with a certain violence in terms
of his writings. There could scarce be a perversion more
justifiable than that; yet it was still a perversion. The
study indeed, raised so much ire in the breast of Dr. Japp
(H. A. Page), Thoreau's sincere and learned disciple, that
had either of us been men, I please myself with thinking, of
less temper and justice, the difference might have made us
enemies instead of making us friends. To him who knew the
man from the inside, many of my statements sounded like
inversions made on purpose; and yet when we came to talk of
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: glazed by the constant use of spectacles made him plainer than he
really was, if by chance he took those appendages off. To real judges
of character, as well as to upright men who are at ease only with
honest natures, des Lupeaulx was intolerable. To them, his gracious
manners only draped his lies; his amiable protestations and hackneyed
courtesies, new to the foolish and ignorant, too plainly showed their
texture to an observing mind. Such minds considered him a rotten
plank, on which no foot should trust itself.
No sooner had the beautiful Madame Rabourdin decided to interfere in
her husband's administrative advancement than she fathomed Clement des
Lupeaulx's true character, and studied him thoughtfully to discover
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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 Princess by Alfred Tennyson: Slipt round and in the dark invested you,
And here he keeps me hostage for his son.'
The second was my father's running thus:
'You have our son: touch not a hair of his head:
Render him up unscathed: give him your hand:
Cleave to your contract: though indeed we hear
You hold the woman is the better man;
A rampant heresy, such as if it spread
Would make all women kick against their Lords
Through all the world, and which might well deserve
That we this night should pluck your palace down;
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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 Pagan and Christian Creeds by Edward Carpenter: hidden. There is a secret by which Nature and the powers
of the universal life will do all for you. The Bhagavat Gita
also says, "He who discovers inaction in action and action in
inaction is wise among mortals."
It is worth while dwelling for a moment on these texts. We
are all--as I said earlier on--involved in work belonging to
our place and station; we are tied to some degree in the bonds
of action. But that fact need not imprison our inner minds.
While acting even with keenness and energy along the external
and necessary path before us, it is perfectly possible to hold
the mind free and untied--so that the RESULT of our action (which
Pagan and Christian Creeds |
