| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Aeneid by Virgil: His prize, the lowing herds, Alcides drove
Near Tiber's bank, to graze the shady grove.
Allur'd with hope of plunder, and intent
By force to rob, by fraud to circumvent,
The brutal Cacus, as by chance they stray'd,
Four oxen thence, and four fair kine convey'd;
And, lest the printed footsteps might be seen,
He dragg'd 'em backwards to his rocky den.
The tracks averse a lying notice gave,
And led the searcher backward from the cave.
"Meantime the herdsman hero shifts his place,
Aeneid |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Ion by Plato: many such passages, particularly in the Odyssee; as, for example, the
passage in which Theoclymenus the prophet of the house of Melampus says to
the suitors:--
'Wretched men! what is happening to you? Your heads and your faces and
your limbs underneath are shrouded in night; and the voice of lamentation
bursts forth, and your cheeks are wet with tears. And the vestibule is
full, and the court is full, of ghosts descending into the darkness of
Erebus, and the sun has perished out of heaven, and an evil mist is spread
abroad (Od.).'
And there are many such passages in the Iliad also; as for example in the
description of the battle near the rampart, where he says:--
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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 Chance by Joseph Conrad: when one does not mean to put one's belief to the test.
Well, whatever it was that encouraged him, Captain Anthony stuck to
Flora de Barral in a manner which in a timid man might have been
called heroic if it had not been so simple. Whether policy,
diplomacy, simplicity, or just inspiration, he kept up his talk,
rather deliberate, with very few pauses. Then suddenly as if
recollecting himself:
"It's funny. I don't think you are annoyed with me for giving you
my company unasked. But why don't you say something?"
I asked Miss de Barral what answer she made to this query.
"I made no answer," she said in that even, unemotional low voice
Chance |
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 My Aunt Margaret's Mirror by Walter Scott: as by the fineness of its texture. It was Lady Bothwell who had
suggested this species of disguise, partly to avoid observation
as they should go to the conjurer's house, and partly in order to
make trial of his penetration, by appearing before him in a
feigned character. Lady Forester's servant, of tried fidelity,
had been employed by her to propitiate the Doctor by a suitable
fee, and a story intimating that a soldier's wife desired to know
the fate of her husband--a subject upon which, in all
probability, the sage was very frequently consulted,
To the last moment, when the palace clock struck eight, Lady
Bothwell earnestly watched her sister, in hopes that she might
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