| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Gorgias by Plato: wearied of ambition and have only desired rest. We should like to know
what became of the infants 'dying almost as soon as they were born,' but
Plato only raises, without satisfying, our curiosity. The two companies of
souls, ascending and descending at either chasm of heaven and earth, and
conversing when they come out into the meadow, the majestic figures of the
judges sitting in heaven, the voice heard by Ardiaeus, are features of the
great allegory which have an indescribable grandeur and power. The remark
already made respecting the inconsistency of the two other myths must be
extended also to this: it is at once an orrery, or model of the heavens,
and a picture of the Day of Judgment.
The three myths are unlike anything else in Plato. There is an Oriental,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Thus Spake Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche: Thyself threwest thou so high,--but every thrown stone--must fall!
Condemned of thyself, and to thine own stoning: O Zarathustra, far indeed
threwest thou thy stone--but upon THYSELF will it recoil!"
Then was the dwarf silent; and it lasted long. The silence, however,
oppressed me; and to be thus in pairs, one is verily lonesomer than when
alone!
I ascended, I ascended, I dreamt, I thought,--but everything oppressed me.
A sick one did I resemble, whom bad torture wearieth, and a worse dream
reawakeneth out of his first sleep.--
But there is something in me which I call courage: it hath hitherto slain
for me every dejection. This courage at last bade me stand still and say:
Thus Spake Zarathustra |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas: on the ground.
When they raised him, and examined his pulse and his heart,
he was quite dead.
This incident did not much disturb the festival, as neither
the Prince nor the President seemed to mind it much.
Cornelius started back in dismay, when in the thief, in the
pretended Jacob, he recognised his neighbour, Isaac Boxtel,
whom, in the innocence of his heart, he had not for one
instant suspected of such a wicked action.
Then, to the sound of trumpets, the procession marched back
without any change in its order, except that Boxtel was now
The Black Tulip |
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 Ball at Sceaux by Honore de Balzac: An uncle of Emilie's, a vice-admiral, whose fortune had just been
increased by twenty thousand francs a year in consequence of the Act
of Indemnity, and a man of seventy, feeling himself privileged to say
hard things to his grand-niece, on whom he doted, in order to mollify
the bitter tone of the discussion now exclaimed:
"Do not tease my poor little Emilie; don't you see she is waiting till
the Duc de Bordeaux comes of age!"
The old man's pleasantry was received with general laughter.
"Take care I don't marry you, old fool!" replied the young girl, whose
last words were happily drowned in the noise.
"My dear children," said Madame de Fontaine, to soften this saucy
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