| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Unseen World and Other Essays by John Fiske: longer than was consistent with her personal safety. Eloquent
Cicero has been held up as an object of contempt; and even
weighty Tacitus has been said to owe much of his reputation to
his ability to give false testimony with a grave face. It has
lately been suspected that gloomy Tiberius, apart from his
gloominess, may have been rather a good fellow; not so licentious
as puritanical, not cruel so much as exceptionally merciful,--a
rare general, a sagacious statesman, and popular to boot with all
his subjects save the malignant oligarchy which he consistently
snubbed, and which took revenge on him by writing his life. And,
to crown all, even Catiline, abuser of our patience, seducer of
The Unseen World and Other Essays |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Ancient Regime by Charles Kingsley: lilies of the valley, who, having caught Duke Ernest of Saxe Gotha,
was himself caught by Knigge, and his eight, nine, or more ascending
orders of unwisdom;--and finally of the Jesuits who, really with
considerable excuses for their severity, fell upon these poor
foolish Illuminati in 1784 throughout Bavaria, and had them exiled
or imprisoned;--of all this you may read in the pages of Dr. Findel,
and in many another book. For, forgotten as they are now, they made
noise enough in their time.
And so it befell, that this eighteenth century, which is usually
held to be the most "materialistic" of epochs, was, in fact, a most
"spiritualistic" one; in which ghosts, demons, quacks, philosophers'
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Mucker by Edgar Rice Burroughs: Here Bridge sat on guard over the foaming open sesame to
food while Billy crossed to the free lunch counter and appropriated
all that a zealous attendant would permit him to carry
off.
When he returned to the table he took a chair with his
back to the wall in conformity to a habit of long standing
when, as now, it had stood him in good stead to be in a
position to see the other fellow at least as soon as the other
fellow saw him. The other fellow being more often than not a
large gentleman with a bit of shiny metal pinned to his left
suspender strap.
The Mucker |
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 Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: person were actually present to the eye as that, on concluding a
perusal of this work, the reader should be able to return, unharrowed
in soul, to that cult of the card-table which is the solace and
delight of all good Russians. Yes, readers of this book, none of you
really care to see humanity revealed in its nakedness. "Why should we
do so?" you say. "What would be the use of it? Do we not know for
ourselves that human life contains much that is gross and
contemptible? Do we not with our own eyes have to look upon much that
is anything but comforting? Far better would it be if you would put
before us what is comely and attractive, so that we might forget
ourselves a little." In the same fashion does a landowner say to his
Dead Souls |
