| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Sophist by Plato: enemy out of mere spite, or the sense in which it is used is neutral.
Plato, Xenophon, Isocrates, Aristotle, all give a bad import to the word;
and the Sophists are regarded as a separate class in all of them. And in
later Greek literature, the distinction is quite marked between the
succession of philosophers from Thales to Aristotle, and the Sophists of
the age of Socrates, who appeared like meteors for a short time in
different parts of Greece. For the purposes of comedy, Socrates may have
been identified with the Sophists, and he seems to complain of this in the
Apology. But there is no reason to suppose that Socrates, differing by so
many outward marks, would really have been confounded in the mind of
Anytus, or Callicles, or of any intelligent Athenian, with the splendid
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Europeans by Henry James: of his auditors; his eloquence, like the rocking of a boat
in a deep, smooth lake, made long eddies of silence.
And he seemed to be pleading and chattering still, with his
brightly eager smile, his uplifted eyebrows, his expressive mouth,
after he had ceased speaking, and while, with his glance
quickly turning from the father to the daughter, he sat waiting
for the effect of his appeal. "It is not your want of means,"
said Mr. Wentworth, after a period of severe reticence.
"Now it 's delightful of you to say that! Only don't say
it 's my want of character. Because I have a character--
I assure you I have; a small one, a little slip of a thing,
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott: nonsense am, as ever, your loving...
AMY
PARIS
Dear girls,
In my last I told you about our London visit, how kind the
Vaughns were, and what pleasant parties they made for us. I enjoyed
the trips to Hampton Court and the Kensington Museum more than
anything else, for at Hampton I saw Raphael's cartoons, and
at the Museum, rooms full of pictures by Turner, Lawrence, Reynolds,
Hogarth, and the other great creatures. The day in Richmond
Park was charming, for we had a regular English picnic, and
Little Women |
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 The Pocket Diary Found in the Snow by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: as I was afraid of everything else. She promised that she would do it.
"Are they looking for me? My guardian is Theodore Fellner, Cathedral
Lane, 14. My own name is Asta Langen.
"They took away my travelling bag, but they did not find this little
book and the tiny bottle of perfume which I had in the pocket of my
dress. And I found this old pen and a little ink in a drawer of the
writing table in my room.
"Wednesday. The stranger was here again to-day. I recognised his
soft voice. He spoke to the woman in the hall outside my room. I
listened, but I could catch only a few words. 'To-morrow evening
- I will come myself - no responsibility for you.' Were these words
|
