| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lesser Hippias by Plato: in the same degree that Achilles was a better man than Odysseus; Odysseus,
he would say, is the central figure of the one poem and Achilles of the
other. Now, I should like to know, if Hippias has no objection to tell me,
what he thinks about these two heroes, and which of them he maintains to be
the better; he has already told us in the course of his exhibition many
things of various kinds about Homer and divers other poets.
EUDICUS: I am sure that Hippias will be delighted to answer anything which
you would like to ask; tell me, Hippias, if Socrates asks you a question,
will you answer him?
HIPPIAS: Indeed, Eudicus, I should be strangely inconsistent if I refused
to answer Socrates, when at each Olympic festival, as I went up from my
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Enemies of Books by William Blades: and trousers, and boots were upon the ebony table,
and a "gyp" was brushing away at them just within the door--
in wet weather he performed these functions entirely within
the library--as innocent of the incongruity of his position
as my guide himself. Oh! Richard of Bury, I sighed,
for a sharp stone from your sling to pierce with indignant
sarcasm the mental armour of these College dullards.
Happily, things are altered now, and the disgrace of such neglect no longer
hangs on the College. Let us hope, in these days of revived respect
for antiquity, no other College library is in a similar plight.
Not Englishmen alone are guilty, however, of such unloving treatment
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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 Macbeth by William Shakespeare: Doct. Well, well, well
Gent. Pray God it be sir
Doct. This disease is beyond my practise: yet I haue
knowne those which haue walkt in their sleep, who haue
dyed holily in their beds
Lad. Wash your hands, put on your Night-Gowne,
looke not so pale: I tell you yet againe Banquo's buried;
he cannot come out on's graue
Doct. Euen so?
Lady. To bed, to bed: there's knocking at the gate:
Come, come, come, come, giue me your hand: What's
Macbeth |
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 Mad King by Edgar Rice Burroughs: honors and flushed with glory--the man who was to be
her husband; but there was no rejoicing in the heart of the
Princess Emma.
Instead, there was a dull ache and impotent rebellion
at the injustice of the thing--that Leopold should be reap-
ing these great rewards, while he who had made it possible
for him to be a king at all was to die on the morrow be-
cause of what he had done to place the Rubinroth upon
his throne.
"Perhaps Lieutenant Butzow might find a way," suggested
the officer. "He or your father; they are both fond of Mr.
The Mad King |
