| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Apology by Xenophon: but in my case, simply because I am selected by certain people as an
adept in respect of the greatest treasure men possess--education, I am
on that account to be prosecuted by you, sir, on the capital charge?"
Much more than this, it stands to reason, was urged, whether by
himself or by the friends who advocated his cause.[40] But my object
has not been to mention everything that arose out of the suit. It
suffices me to have shown on the one hand that Socrates, beyond
everything, desired not to display impiety to heaven,[41] and
injustice to men; and on the other, that escape from death was not a
thing, in his opinion, to be clamoured for importunately--on the
contrary, he believed that the time was already come for him to die.
The Apology |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Travels with a Donkey in the Cevenne by Robert Louis Stevenson: high-road, and chaise and outrider fleeing before him at the
gallop. He was placarded like a political offender, and ten
thousand francs were offered for his head. And yet, when he was
shot and sent to Versailles, behold! a common wolf, and even small
for that. 'Though I could reach from pole to pole,' sang Alexander
Pope; the Little Corporal shook Europe; and if all wolves had been
as this wolf, they would have changed the history of man. M. Elie
Berthet has made him the hero of a novel, which I have read, and do
not wish to read again.
I hurried over my lunch, and was proof against the landlady's
desire that I should visit our Lady of Pradelles, 'who performed
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton: unfitted for the married state; and was saved from despair only
by remembering that Susy's subjection to his moods was not
likely to last. But even then it never occurred to him to
reflect that his apprehensions were superfluous, since their tie
was avowedly a temporary one. Of the special understanding on
which their marriage had been based not a trace remained in his
thoughts of her; the idea that he or she might ever renounce
each other for their mutual good had long since dwindled to the
ghost of an old joke.
It was borne in on him, after a week or two of unbroken
sociability, that of all his old friends it was the Mortimer
|
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 Light of Western Stars by Zane Grey: road resembled one of the uncovered streets of Pompeii with its
look of centuries of solitude.
Suddenly a door opened and a tall man stepped out.
Madeline recognized Stewart. She had to place both hands on the
window-sill for support, while a storm of emotion swayed her.
Like a retreating wave it rushed away. Stewart lived. He was
free. He had stepped out into the light. She had saved him.
Life changed for her in that instant of realization and became
sweet, full, strange.
Stewart shook hands with some one in the doorway. Then he looked
up and down the road. The door closed behind him. Leisurely he
The Light of Western Stars |
