| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: courage in the school of real experience, fall upon the wound like
drops of balsam, and like a soothing lotion up on the eyes smarting
and blinded with passion.
She spoke of those who had walked with her long ago in her garden,
and for whose sake, now that they had all gone into the world of
light, every flower was doubly dear. Would it be a true proof of
loyalty to them if she lived gloomily or despondently because they
were away? She spoke of the duty of being ready to welcome
happiness as well as to endure pain, and of the strength that
endurance wins by being grateful for small daily joys, like the
evening light, and the smell of roses, and the singing of birds.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Meno by Plato: MENO: Yes.
SOCRATES: And now, as Pindar says, 'read my meaning:'--colour is an
effluence of form, commensurate with sight, and palpable to sense.
MENO: That, Socrates, appears to me to be an admirable answer.
SOCRATES: Why, yes, because it happens to be one which you have been in
the habit of hearing: and your wit will have discovered, I suspect, that
you may explain in the same way the nature of sound and smell, and of many
other similar phenomena.
MENO: Quite true.
SOCRATES: The answer, Meno, was in the orthodox solemn vein, and therefore
was more acceptable to you than the other answer about figure.
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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 Koran: say, 'There did come to us the apostles of our Lord in truth, have
we intercessors to intercede for us? or, could we return, we would
do otherwise than we did.' They have lost themselves, and that which
they devised has strayed away from them.
Verily, your Lord is God who created the heavens and the earth in
six days; then He made for the Throne. He covers night with the day-
it pursues it incessantly- and the sun and the moon and the stars
are subject to His bidding. Aye!- His is the creation and the
bidding,- blessed be God the Lord of the worlds!
Call on your Lord humbly and secretly, verily, He loves not the
transgressors. And do not evil in the earth after it has been righted;
The Koran |
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 Sons of the Soil by Honore de Balzac: is a free man, and he can become a rich one. It is not as it used to
be. If a peasant lays by his money, he can always buy a bit of land
and become his own master."
"I've seen the olden time and I've seen the new, my dear wise
gentleman," said Fourchon; "the sign over the door has changed, that's
true, but the wine is the same,--to-day is the younger brother of
yesterday, that's all. Put that in your newspaper! Are we poor folks
free? We still belong to the same parish, and its lord is always
there,--I call him Toil. The hoe, our sole property, has never left
our hands. Let it be the old lords or the present taxes which take the
best of our earnings, the fact remains that we sweat our lives out in
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