| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Father Damien by Robert Louis Stevenson: faltered and stumbled in his narrow path of duty; I will suppose
that, in the horror of his isolation, perhaps in the fever of
incipient disease, he, who was doing so much more than he had
sworn, failed in the letter of his priestly oath - he, who was so
much a better man than either you or me, who did what we have never
dreamed of daring - he too tasted of our common frailty. "O, Iago,
the pity of it!" The least tender should be moved to tears; the
most incredulous to prayer. And all that you could do was to pen
your letter to the Reverend H. B. Gage!
Is it growing at all clear to you what a picture you have drawn of
your own heart? I will try yet once again to make it clearer. You
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from King James Bible: heaven:
KI1 8:23 And he said, LORD God of Israel, there is no God like thee, in
heaven above, or on earth beneath, who keepest covenant and mercy with
thy servants that walk before thee with all their heart:
KI1 8:24 Who hast kept with thy servant David my father that thou
promisedst him: thou spakest also with thy mouth, and hast fulfilled it
with thine hand, as it is this day.
KI1 8:25 Therefore now, LORD God of Israel, keep with thy servant David
my father that thou promisedst him, saying, There shall not fail thee a
man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel; so that thy children
take heed to their way, that they walk before me as thou hast walked
King James Bible |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from King Henry VI by William Shakespeare: SCENE X. Kent. Iden's Garden.
[Enter CADE.]
CADE.
Fie on ambitions! fie on myself, that have a sword
and yet am ready to famish! These five days have I hid me in
these woods and durst not peep out, for all the country is laid
for me; but now am I so hungry that if I might have a lease of
my life for a thousand years I could stay no longer. Wherefore,
on a brick wall have I climb'd into this garden, to see if I can
eat grass, or pick a sallet another while, which is not amiss to
cool
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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 Charmides by Plato: and prevent ignorance from intruding on us. But whether by acting
according to knowledge we shall act well and be happy, my dear Critias,--
this is a point which we have not yet been able to determine.
Yet I think, he replied, that if you discard knowledge, you will hardly
find the crown of happiness in anything else.
But of what is this knowledge? I said. Just answer me that small question.
Do you mean a knowledge of shoemaking?
God forbid.
Or of working in brass?
Certainly not.
Or in wool, or wood, or anything of that sort?
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