| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Theaetetus by Plato: simplest of these is sensation, or sensible perception, by which Plato
seems to mean the generalized notion of feelings and impressions of sense,
without determining whether they are conscious or not.
The theory that 'Knowledge is sensible perception' is the antithesis of
that which derives knowledge from the mind (Theaet.), or which assumes the
existence of ideas independent of the mind (Parm.). Yet from their extreme
abstraction these theories do not represent the opposite poles of thought
in the same way that the corresponding differences would in modern
philosophy. The most ideal and the most sensational have a tendency to
pass into one another; Heracleitus, like his great successor Hegel, has
both aspects. The Eleatic isolation of Being and the Megarian or Cynic
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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 Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz by L. Frank Baum: "Those were the first words I ever said," called out the horse, who
had overheard them, "and I can't explain why I happened to speak then.
This is a nice scrape you've got me into, isn't it?"
"As for that, we are in the same scrape ourselves," answered Dorothy,
cheerfully. "But never mind; something will happen pretty soon."
"Of course," growled the horse, "and then we shall be sorry it happened."
Zeb gave a shiver. All this was so terrible and unreal that he could
not understand it at all, and so had good reason to be afraid.
Swiftly they drew near to the flaming colored suns, and passed close
beside them. The light was then so bright that it dazzled their eyes,
and they covered their faces with their hands to escape being blinded.
 Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz |