| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Walden by Henry David Thoreau: poetry. I know of nothing more purgative of winter fumes and
indigestions. It convinces me that Earth is still in her
swaddling-clothes, and stretches forth baby fingers on every side.
Fresh curls spring from the baldest brow. There is nothing
inorganic. These foliaceous heaps lie along the bank like the slag
of a furnace, showing that Nature is "in full blast" within. The
earth is not a mere fragment of dead history, stratum upon stratum
like the leaves of a book, to be studied by geologists and
antiquaries chiefly, but living poetry like the leaves of a tree,
which precede flowers and fruit -- not a fossil earth, but a living
earth; compared with whose great central life all animal and
Walden |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Barlaam and Ioasaph by St. John of Damascus: which of error. It is manifiest to us, O king, that there are
three races of men in this world: those that are worshippers of
them whom ye call gods, and Jews, and Christians. And again
those who serve many gods are divided into three races,
Chaldeans, Greeks and Egyptians, for these are to the other
nations the leaders and teachers of the service and worship of
the gods whose name is legion. Let us therefore see which of
these hold the truth, and which error.
"The Chaldeans, which knew not God, went astray after the
elements and began to worship the creature rather than their
Creator, and they made figures of these creatures and called them
|
