| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Hiero by Xenophon: hippic and gymnic."
X
And Hiero replied: Thus far you reason prettily, methinks, Simonides;
but about these mercenary troops have you aught to say? Can you
suggest a means to avoid the hatred of which they are the cause? Or
will you tell me that a ruler who has won the affection of his
subjects has no need for body-guards?
Nay, in good sooth (replied Simonides), distinctly he will need them
none the less. I know it is with certain human beings as with horses,
some trick of the blood they have, some inborn tendency; the more
their wants are satisfied, the more their wantonness will out. Well
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Road to Oz by L. Frank Baum: "Is this a fairy country?" asked Button-Bright.
"I should think you'd know," said the little girl, gravely.
"If it wasn't a fairy country you couldn't have a fox head
and the shaggy man couldn't have a donkey head, and the Rainbow's
Daughter would be invis'ble."
"What's that?" asked the boy.
"You don't seem to know anything, Button-Bright. Invis'ble is a thing
you can't see."
"Then Toto's invis'ble," declared the boy, and Dorothy found he was
right. Toto had disappeared from view, but they could hear him
barking furiously among the heaps of grey rock ahead of them.
The Road to Oz |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Lover's Complaint by William Shakespeare: Which one by one she in a river threw,
Upon whose weeping margent she was set;
Like usury applying wet to wet,
Or monarchs' hands, that lets not bounty fall
Where want cries 'some,' but where excess begs all.
Of folded schedules had she many a one,
Which she perus'd, sigh'd, tore, and gave the flood;
Crack'd many a ring of posied gold and bone,
Bidding them find their sepulchres in mud;
Found yet mo letters sadly penn'd in blood,
With sleided silk feat and affectedly
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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 A Sentimental Journey by Laurence Sterne: atom; - seek, - seek some winding alley, with a tourniquet at the
end of it, where chariot never rolled or flambeau shot its rays; -
there thou mayest solace thy soul in converse sweet with some kind
grisette of a barber's wife, and get into such coteries! -
- May I perish! if I do, said I, pulling out the letter which I had
to present to Madame de R- - I'll wait upon this lady, the very
first thing I do. So I called La Fleur to go seek me a barber
directly, - and come back and brush my coat.
THE WIG. PARIS.
WHEN the barber came, he absolutely refused to have any thing to do
with my wig: 'twas either above or below his art: I had nothing to
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