| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Pagan and Christian Creeds by Edward Carpenter: encourage the pleasurable, to avoid or inhibit the painful,
and so on?" From that moment a new motive was added
to life. The mind revolved round a new centre. It began
to spin like a little eddy round its own axis. It studied
ITSELF first and became deeply concerned about its own
pleasures and pains, losing touch the while with the larger
life which once dominated it--the life of Nature, the life
of the Tribe. The old unity of the spirit, the old solidarity,
were broken up.
[1] See Bucke's Cosmic Consciousness (Philadelphia, 1901), pp. 1
and 39; also W. McDougall's Social Psychology (1908), p. 146--
Pagan and Christian Creeds |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Cousin Betty by Honore de Balzac: Cadine, a Josepha, a Madame Marneffe!-- Did you know that?"
"You, mamma, you! You have endured this for twenty----"
She broke off, staggered by her own thoughts.
"Do as I have done, my child," said her mother. "Be gentle and kind,
and your conscience will be at peace. On his death-bed a man may say,
'My wife has never cost me a pang!' And God, who hears that dying
breath, credits it to us. If I had abandoned myself to fury like you,
what would have happened? Your father would have been embittered,
perhaps he would have left me altogether, and he would not have been
withheld by any fear of paining me. Our ruin, utter as it now is,
would have been complete ten years sooner, and we should have shown
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll: Fit the Third
THE BAKER'S TALE
They roused him with muffins--they roused him with ice--
They roused him with mustard and cress--
They roused him with jam and judicious advice--
They set him conundrums to guess.
When at length he sat up and was able to speak,
His sad story he offered to tell;
And the Bellman cried "Silence! Not even a shriek!"
And excitedly tingled his bell.
There was silence supreme! Not a shriek, not a scream,
The Hunting of the Snark |
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 Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: I neither spoke nor looked at anyone, but sat motionless, bewildered by
the multitude of miseries that overcame me.
Elizabeth alone had the power to draw me from these fits; her
gentle voice would soothe me when transported by passion and
inspire me with human feelings when sunk in torpor. She wept with
me and for me. When reason returned, she would remonstrate and
endeavour to inspire me with resignation. Ah! It is well for the
unfortunate to be resigned, but for the guilty there is no peace.
The agonies of remorse poison the luxury there is otherwise
sometimes found in indulging the excess of grief. Soon after my
arrival my father spoke of my immediate marriage with Elizabeth.
Frankenstein |
