| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Charmides by Plato: Greek literature are forgeries. (Compare Bentley's Works (Dyce's
Edition).) Of all documents this class are the least likely to be
preserved and the most likely to be invented. The ancient world swarmed
with them; the great libraries stimulated the demand for them; and at a
time when there was no regular publication of books, they easily crept into
the world.
(b) When one epistle out of a number is spurious, the remainder of the
series cannot be admitted to be genuine, unless there be some independent
ground for thinking them so: when all but one are spurious, overwhelming
evidence is required of the genuineness of the one: when they are all
similar in style or motive, like witnesses who agree in the same tale, they
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf: said something very brief over the top of it about the character of
Napoleon.
She gazed back over the sea, at the island. But the leaf was losing
its sharpness. It was very small; it was very distant. The sea was
more important now than the shore. Waves were all round them, tossing
and sinking, with a log wallowing down one wave; a gull riding on
another. About here, she thought, dabbling her fingers in the water, a
ship had sunk, and she murmured, dreamily half asleep, how we perished,
each alone.
11
So much depends then, thought Lily Briscoe, looking at the sea which
To the Lighthouse |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Betty Zane by Zane Grey: duty?"
"You know sometimes it is difficult to explain," said Alfred, "besides, the
situation had its charm. No, I am not a robber, and I don't believe you
thought so. I have only thwarted a young lady's whim, which I am aware is a
great crime. I am very sorry. Goodbye."
Betty gave him a withering glance from her black eyes, wheeled her pony and
galloped away. A mellow laugh was borne to her ears before she got out of
hearing, and again the red blood mantled her cheeks.
"Heavens! What a little beauty," said Alfred to himself, as he watched the
graceful rider disappear. "What spirit! Now, I wonder who she can be. She had
on moccasins and buckskin gloves and her hair tumbled like a tomboy's, but she
Betty Zane |
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 Hellenica by Xenophon: mountains forming the natural boundary between Laconia and Arcadia
(in the direct line north from Sparta to Tegea), "Dict. of Anc.
Geog." s.v. Leake says ("Morea," iii. 19, 30 foll.) near the
modern village of Kolina; Baedeker ("Greece," p. 269) says perhaps
at Palaeogoulas.
Caryae. This frontier town was apparently (near Arachova) on the
road from Thyrea (in the direction of the Argolid) to Sparta
(Thuc. v. 55; Paus. III. x. 7; Livy, xxxiv. 26, but see Leake,
"Morea," iii. 30; "Peloponn." p. 342).
Sellasia, probably rightly placed "half an hour above Vourlia"
(Baedeker, "Greece," p. 269). The famous battle of Sellasia, in
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