| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Voyage to Abyssinia by Father Lobo: that we might relate the progress and success of our missions, and
concert all measures that might farther the conversion of the
inhabitants. This year our place of meeting was the Emperor's camp,
where the patriarch and superior of the missions were. I left the
place of my abode, and took in my way four fathers, that resided at
the distance of two days' journey, so that the company, without
reckoning our attendants, was five. There happened nothing
remarkable to us till the last night of our journey, when taking up
our lodging at a place belonging to the Empress, a declared enemy to
all Catholics, and in particular to the missionaries, we met with a
kind reception in appearance, and were lodged in a large stone house
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Mrs. Warren's Profession by George Bernard Shaw: hard as nails.
VIVIE [grimly] Well for me that I am!
FRANK [rising] Look here, Viv: we must have an explanation. We
parted the other day under a complete misunderstanding. [He sits
on the table, close to her].
VIVIE [putting away the cigaret] Well: clear it up.
FRANK. You remember what Crofts said.
VIVIE. Yes.
FRANK. That revelation was supposed to bring about a complete
change in the nature of our feeling for one another. It placed
us on the footing of brother and sister.
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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 Meno by Plato: that it is not taught. Virtue, therefore, is and is not teachable.
In this dilemma an appeal is made to Anytus, a respectable and well-to-do
citizen of the old school, and a family friend of Meno, who happens to be
present. He is asked 'whether Meno shall go to the Sophists and be
taught.' The suggestion throws him into a rage. 'To whom, then, shall
Meno go?' asks Socrates. To any Athenian gentleman--to the great Athenian
statesmen of past times. Socrates replies here, as elsewhere (Laches,
Prot.), that Themistocles, Pericles, and other great men, had sons to whom
they would surely, if they could have done so, have imparted their own
political wisdom; but no one ever heard that these sons of theirs were
remarkable for anything except riding and wrestling and similar
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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 The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: others, roofs it in and serves as a scaffolding for the whole of
the ceiling. If we did not see the silky remnants of the two
vestibules projecting and feel a certain resistance when separating
the parts of the bundle, we might take the thing for a casual
accumulation, the work of the rain and the wind.
Let us examine our find and look more closely into its
shapelessness. Here is the large room, the maternal cabin, which
rips as the coating of leaves is removed; here are the circular
galleries of the guard-room; here are the central chamber and its
pillars, all in a fabric of immaculate white. The dirt from the
damp ground has not penetrated to this dwelling protected by its
The Life of the Spider |
