| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Child of Storm by H. Rider Haggard: well. How old? Well, when I was young I came down towards the coast
from the Great River, you call it the Zambesi, I think, with Undwandwe,
who lived in the north in those days. They have forgotten it now
because it is some time ago, and if I could write I would set down the
history of that march, for we fought some great battles with the people
who used to live in this country. Afterwards I was the friend of the
Father of the Zulus, he whom they still call Inkoosi Umkulu--the mighty
chief--you may have heard tell of him. I carved that stool on which you
sit for him and he left it back to me when he died."
"Inkoosi Umkulu!" I exclaimed. "Why, they say he lived hundreds of
years ago."
Child of Storm |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from All's Well That Ends Well by William Shakespeare: SECOND LORD.
He hath perverted a young gentlewoman here in Florence, of a most
chaste renown; and this night he fleshes his will in the spoil of
her honour: he hath given her his monumental ring, and thinks
himself made in the unchaste composition.
FIRST LORD.
Now, God delay our rebellion: as we are ourselves, what things
are we!
SECOND LORD.
Merely our own traitors. And as in the common course of all
treasons, we still see them reveal themselves till they attain
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Kenilworth by Walter Scott: ruddy, and the eyes we have mentioned resembled those of a rat in
acuteness and even fierceness of expression. His manner was not
without a sort of dignity; and the interpreter of the stars,
though respectful, seemed altogether at his ease, and even
assumed a tone of instruction and command in conversing with the
prime favourite of Elizabeth.
"Your prognostications have failed, Alasco," said the Earl, when
they had exchanged salutations--"he is recovering."
"My son," replied the astrologer, "let me remind you I warranted
not his death; nor is there any prognostication that can be
derived from the heavenly bodies, their aspects and their
Kenilworth |
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 Euthyphro by Plato: conceptions of them have been overthrown, Socrates does not offer any
definition of his own: as in the Laches and Lysis, he prepares the way for
an answer to the question which he has raised; but true to his own
character, refuses to answer himself.
Euthyphro is a religionist, and is elsewhere spoken of, if he be the same
person, as the author of a philosophy of names, by whose 'prancing steeds'
Socrates in the Cratylus is carried away. He has the conceit and self-
confidence of a Sophist; no doubt that he is right in prosecuting his
father has ever entered into his mind. Like a Sophist too, he is incapable
either of framing a general definition or of following the course of an
argument. His wrong-headedness, one-sidedness, narrowness, positiveness,
|
