| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Symposium by Plato: plants; for hoar-frost and hail and blight spring from the excesses and
disorders of these elements of love, which to know in relation to the
revolutions of the heavenly bodies and the seasons of the year is termed
astronomy. Furthermore all sacrifices and the whole province of
divination, which is the art of communion between gods and men--these, I
say, are concerned only with the preservation of the good and the cure of
the evil love. For all manner of impiety is likely to ensue if, instead of
accepting and honouring and reverencing the harmonious love in all his
actions, a man honours the other love, whether in his feelings towards gods
or parents, towards the living or the dead. Wherefore the business of
divination is to see to these loves and to heal them, and divination is the
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland by Olive Schreiner: two beasts were; and I saw it settle down upon a great white stone; and it
waited. And I saw more specks to the northward, and more and more came
onward to join him who sat upon the stone. And some hovered over the
beasts, and some sharpened their beaks on the stones; and some walked in
and out between the beasts' legs. And I saw that they were waiting for
something.
"'Then he who first came flew from one of the beasts to the other, and sat
upon their necks, and put his beak within their ears. And he flew from one
to the other and flapped his wings in their faces till the beasts were
blinded, and each believed it was his fellow who attacked him. And they
fell to, and fought; they gored one another's sides till the field was red
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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 The Professor by Charlotte Bronte: for which I have no vocation, I would endure extremities of
hardship from poverty."
"You're a mighty difficult customer to suit. You won't be a
tradesman or a parson; you can't be a lawyer, or a doctor, or a
gentleman, because you've no money. I'd recommend you to
travel."
"What! without money?"
"You must travel in search of money, man. You can speak French-
-with a vile English accent, no doubt--still, you can speak it.
Go on to the Continent, and see what will turn up for you there."
"God knows I should like to go!" exclaimed I with involuntary
The Professor |
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 A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe: They went on with the usual impetuosity of their tempers, full of
outcries and lamentations when taken, but madly careless of
themselves, foolhardy and obstinate, while they were well. Where
they could get employment they pushed into any kind of business, the
most dangerous and the most liable to infection; and if they were
spoken to, their answer would be, 'I must trust to God for that; if I am
taken, then I am provided for, and there is an end of me', and the like.
Or thus, 'Why, what must I do? I can't starve. I had as good have the
plague as perish for want. I have no work; what could I do? I must do
this or beg.' Suppose it was burying the dead, or attending the sick, or
watching infected houses, which were all terrible hazards; but their
A Journal of the Plague Year |
