| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Faraday as a Discoverer by John Tyndall: attraction. The attraction exerted between the earth and a body at
a distance from the earth's surface is a source of working-power;
because the body can be moved by the attraction, and in falling to
the earth can perform work. When it rests upon the earth's surface
it is not a source of power or energy, because it can fall no
further. But though it has ceased to be a source of energy, the
attraction of gravity still acts as a force, which holds the earth
and weight together.
The same remarks apply to attracting atoms and molecules. As long
as distance separates them, they can move across it in obedience to
the attraction, and the motion thus produced may, by proper appliances,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens: expression,--'she is. Did you wish to see her?'
Mr Chester nodded.
'Then come this way, sir,' said Sim, wiping his face upon his
apron. 'Follow me, sir.--Would you permit me to whisper in your
ear, one half a second?'
'By all means.'
Mr Tappertit raised himself on tiptoe, applied his lips to Mr
Chester's ear, drew back his head without saying anything, looked
hard at him, applied them to his ear again, again drew back, and
finally whispered--'The name is Joseph Willet. Hush! I say no
more.'
Barnaby Rudge |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Snow Image by Nathaniel Hawthorne: I were true lovers once, if ever two young folks were ."
As she ceased, the yeoman and his wife exchanged a glance, in
which there was more and warmer affection than they had supposed
to have escaped the frost of a wintry fate, in either of their
breasts. At that moment, when they stood on the utmost verge of
married life, one word fitly spoken, or perhaps one peculiar
look, had they had mutual confidence enough to reciprocate it,
might have renewed all their old feelings, and sent them back,
resolved to sustain each other amid the struggles of the world.
But the crisis passed and never came again. Just then, also, the
children, roused by their mother's voice, looked up, and added
The Snow Image |
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 Phaedrus by Plato: opinion. The reason why the souls exhibit this exceeding eagerness to
behold the plain of truth is that pasturage is found there, which is suited
to the highest part of the soul; and the wing on which the soul soars is
nourished with this. And there is a law of Destiny, that the soul which
attains any vision of truth in company with a god is preserved from harm
until the next period, and if attaining always is always unharmed. But
when she is unable to follow, and fails to behold the truth, and through
some ill-hap sinks beneath the double load of forgetfulness and vice, and
her wings fall from her and she drops to the ground, then the law ordains
that this soul shall at her first birth pass, not into any other animal,
but only into man; and the soul which has seen most of truth shall come to
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