| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Passionate Pilgrim by William Shakespeare: When Cytherea, all in love forlorn,
A longing tarriance for Adonis made
Under an osier growing by a brook,
A brook where Adon used to cool his spleen:
Hot was the day; she hotter that did look
For his approach, that often there had been.
Anon he comes, and throws his mantle by,
And stood stark naked on the brook's green brim:
The sun look'd on the world with glorious eye,
Yet not so wistly as this queen on him.
He, spying her, bounced in, whereas he stood:
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A House of Pomegranates by Oscar Wilde: and love them.'
'What sayest thou?' murmured the young Fisherman.
'Thou knowest,' answered his Soul, 'thou knowest it well. Hast
thou forgotten that thou gavest me no heart? I trow not. And so
trouble not thyself nor me, but be at peace, for there is no pain
that thou shalt not give away, nor any pleasure that thou shalt not
receive.'
And when the young Fisherman heard these words he trembled and said
to his Soul, 'Nay, but thou art evil, and hast made me forget my
love, and hast tempted me with temptations, and hast set my feet in
the ways of sin.'
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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 King Henry VI by William Shakespeare: And when I give occasion of offence,
Then let me die, for now thou hast no cause.
CLIFFORD.
No cause?
Thy father slew my father; therefore, die. [Clifford stabs him.]
RUTLAND.
Dii faciant laudis summa sit ista tuae! [Dies.]
CLIFFORD.
Plantagenet! I come, Plantagenet!
And this thy son's blood cleaving to my blade
Shall rust upon my weapon till thy blood
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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 Parmenides by Plato: in the way of all progress and development of thought. He does not say
with Bacon, 'Let us make truth by experiment,' or 'From these vague and
inexact notions let us turn to facts.' The time has not yet arrived for a
purely inductive philosophy. The instruments of thought must first be
forged, that they may be used hereafter by modern inquirers. How, while
mankind were disputing about universals, could they classify phenomena?
How could they investigate causes, when they had not as yet learned to
distinguish between a cause and an end? How could they make any progress
in the sciences without first arranging them? These are the deficiencies
which Plato is seeking to supply in an age when knowledge was a shadow of a
name only. In the earlier dialogues the Socratic conception of universals
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