| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbot: and inexperienced, who may perchance infer -- from the two simple
instances I have given above, of the manner in which I should
recognize my Father and my Sons -- that Recognition by sight
is an easy affair, it may be needful to point out that in actual life
most of the problems of Sight Recognition are far more
subtle and complex.
If for example, when my Father, the Triangle, approaches me,
he happens to present his side to me instead of his angle, then,
until I have asked him to rotate, or until I have edged my eye
round him, I am for the moment doubtful whether he may not be
a Straight Line, or, in other words, a Woman. Again, when I am
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: But Minerva went to the fair city of Lacedaemon to tell Ulysses'
son that he was to return at once. She found him and Pisistratus
sleeping in the forecourt of Menelaus's house; Pisistratus was
fast asleep, but Telemachus could get no rest all night for
thinking of his unhappy father, so Minerva went close up to him
and said:
"Telemachus, you should not remain so far away from home any
longer, nor leave your property with such dangerous people in
your house; they will eat up everything you have among them, and
you will have been on a fool's errand. Ask Menelaus to send you
home at once if you wish to find your excellent mother still
The Odyssey |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Common Sense by Thomas Paine: by observing, that a charter is to be understood as a bond
of solemn obligation, which the whole enters into,
to support the right of every separate part,
whether of religion, personal freedom, or property.
A firm bargain and a right reckoning make long friends.
In a former page I likewise mentioned the necessity of a large
and equal representation; and there is no political matter
which more deserves our attention. A small number of electors,
or a small number of representatives, are equally dangerous.
But if the number of the representatives be not only small,
but unequal, the danger is increased. As an instance of this,
Common Sense |
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 A Second Home by Honore de Balzac: antiquated spectacles which keep their place on the nostrils by the
grip of a spring. By night these two hardworking women set a lamp
between them; and the light, concentrated by two globe-shaped bottles
of water, showed the elder the fine network made by the threads on her
pillow, and the younger the most delicate details of the pattern she
was embroidering. The outward bend of the window had allowed the girl
to rest a box of earth on the window-sill, in which grew some sweet
peas, nasturtiums, a sickly little honeysuckle, and some convolvulus
that twined its frail stems up the iron bars. These etiolated plants
produced a few pale flowers, and added a touch of indescribable
sadness and sweetness to the picture offered by this window, in which
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