| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Thus Spake Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche: But what did Zarathustra once say unto thee? That the poets lie too much?
--But Zarathustra also is a poet.
Believest thou that he there spake the truth? Why dost thou believe it?"
The disciple answered: "I believe in Zarathustra." But Zarathustra shook
his head and smiled.--
Belief doth not sanctify me, said he, least of all the belief in myself.
But granting that some one did say in all seriousness that the poets lie
too much: he was right--WE do lie too much.
We also know too little, and are bad learners: so we are obliged to lie.
And which of us poets hath not adulterated his wine? Many a poisonous
hotchpotch hath evolved in our cellars: many an indescribable thing hath
Thus Spake Zarathustra |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Ann Veronica by H. G. Wells: through a new world with him side by side. She had been so busy
with life that, for a vast gulf of time, as it seemed, she had
given no thought to those ancient, imagined things of her
childhood. Now, abruptly, they were real again, though very
distant, and she had come to say farewell to them across one
sundering year.
She was unusually helpful at breakfast, and unselfish about the
eggs: and then she went off to catch the train before her
father's. She did this to please him. He hated travelling
second-class with her--indeed, he never did--but he also disliked
travelling in the same train when his daughter was in an inferior
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