| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A treatise on Good Works by Dr. Martin Luther: ditches, water, up hill and down dale, regardless of roads and
bridges; he will not drive long, all will go to smash.
Therefore it would be most profitable for rulers, that they read,
or have read to them, from youth on, the histories, both in
sacred and in profane books, in which they would find more
examples and skill in ruling than in all the books of law; as we
read that the kings of Persia did, Esther vi. For examples and
histories benefit and teach more than the laws and statutes:
there actual experience teaches, here untried and uncertain
words.
XVI. Three special, distinct works all rulers might do in our
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Moby Dick by Herman Melville: requisite that temporary interests and employments should intervene
and hold them healthily suspended for the final dash.
Nor was Ahab unmindful of another thing. In times of strong emotion
mankind disdain all base considerations; but such times are
evanescent. The permanent constitutional condition of the
manufactured man, thought Ahab, is sordidness. Granting that the
White Whale fully incites the hearts of this my savage crew, and
playing round their savageness even breeds a certain generous
knight-errantism in them, still, while for the love of it they give
chase to Moby Dick, they must also have food for their more common,
daily appetites. For even the high lifted and chivalric Crusaders of
Moby Dick |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Lesser Bourgeoisie by Honore de Balzac: of a nature to become a possible cause of dispute with associates.
"I could only," he said to Cadenet, "take them at six per cent
interest, and you can do better than that in your own business. We
will go into partnership later, if you like, in some serious
enterprise, some good opportunity which may require, say, fifty
thousand francs. When you have got that sum to invest, let me know,
and we'll talk about it."
Cerizet had only suggested the affair of the house to Theodose after
making sure that among the three, Madame Poiret, Cadenet, and himself,
it was impossible to raise the full sum of one hundred thousand
francs.
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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 Tanach: 2_Chronicles 6: 29 what prayer and supplication soever be made by any man, or by all Thy people Israel, who shall know every man his own plague and his own pain, and shall spread forth his hands toward this house;
2_Chronicles 6: 30 then hear Thou from heaven Thy dwelling-place, and forgive, and render unto every man according to all his ways, whose heart Thou knowest--for Thou, even Thou only, knowest the hearts of the children of men--
2_Chronicles 6: 31 that they may fear Thee, to walk in Thy ways, all the days that they live in the land which Thou gavest unto our fathers.
2_Chronicles 6: 32 Moreover concerning the stranger, that is not of Thy people Israel, when be shall come out of a far country for Thy great name's sake, and Thy mighty hand, and Thine outstretched arm; when they shall come and pray toward this house;
2_Chronicles 6: 33 then hear Thou from heaven, even from Thy dwelling-place, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to Thee for; that all the peoples of the earth may know Thy name, and fear Thee, as doth Thy people Israel, and that they may know that Thy name is called upon this house which I have built.
2_Chronicles 6: 34 If Thy people go out to battle against their enemies, by whatsoever way Thou shalt send them, and they pray unto Thee toward this city which Thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built for Thy name;
The Tanach |
