| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes: day. But she should tell the children, she said, that there were
better reasons for truth than could be found in mere experience of
its convenience and the inconvenience of lying.
Yes, - I said, - but education always begins through the senses,
and works up to the idea of absolute right and wrong. The first
thing the child has to learn about this matter is, that lying is
unprofitable, - afterwards, that it is against the peace and
dignity of the universe.
- Do I think that the particular form of lying often seen in
newspapers, under the title, "From our Foreign Correspondent," does
any harm? - Why, no, - I don't know that it does. I suppose it
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Phaedrus by Plato: far above art, and was quite sensible of the interval which separated them
(Phaedrus). It is the interval which separates Sophists and rhetoricians
from ancient famous men and women such as Homer and Hesiod, Anacreon and
Sappho, Aeschylus and Sophocles; and the Platonic Socrates is afraid that,
if he approves the former, he will be disowned by the latter. The spirit
of rhetoric was soon to overspread all Hellas; and Plato with prophetic
insight may have seen, from afar, the great literary waste or dead level,
or interminable marsh, in which Greek literature was soon to disappear. A
similar vision of the decline of the Greek drama and of the contrast of the
old literature and the new was present to the mind of Aristophanes after
the death of the three great tragedians (Frogs). After about a hundred, or
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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 Royalty Restored/London Under Charles II by J. Fitzgerald Molloy: him understand that there had been several plots in England to
bring in popery, and that if he would go beyond sea among the
Jesuits, and strictly observe their ways, it was possible there
might be one at present; and if he could make that out, it would
be his preferment for ever; but, however, if he could get their
names, and some information from the papists, it would be very
easy to rouse people with the fears of popery."
Hungering for gold, and thirsting for notoriety, Oates quickly
agreed to the scheme laid before him. Accordingly he became
acquainted with, and was received into the Catholic Church by,
Father Berry, a Jesuit, and in May, 1677, was sent by the Jesuits
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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 Stories From the Old Attic by Robert Harris: on a tree stump, "let me tell you a story about two horses."
"Oh, yes, do," the youth said eagerly, sitting down at the
man's feet.
"The first horse lived in Arabia, and he was beautiful and
strong. He had never lost a race. And he was shrewd. He would
run just hard enough to pull away from the other horses in the race,
and then he would let up and trot, or even walk, across the finish
line, to the great embarrassment and humiliation of all the
other horses."
"He was clearly a superior animal," the young poet interjected.
"Yes, he was," agreed the man. "Now the other horse lived in
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