| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Alexandria and her Schools by Charles Kingsley: Levant by the Mediterranean, with India by the Red Sea, certain of
boundless supplies of food from the desert-guarded valley of the Nile,
to which it formed the only key, thus keeping all Egypt, as it were, for
its own private farm, it was weak only on one side, that of Judea. That
small strip of fertile mountain land, containing innumerable military
positions from which an enemy might annoy Egypt, being, in fact, one
natural chain of fortresses, was the key to Phoenicia and Syria. It was
an eagle's eyrie by the side of a pen of fowls. It must not be left
defenceless for a single year. Tyre and Gaza had been taken; so no
danger was to be apprehended from the seaboard: but to subdue the
Judean mountaineers, a race whose past sufferings had hardened them in a
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, etc. by Oscar Wilde: with us, and Lady Canterville often got very little sleep at night,
in consequence of the mysterious noises that came from the corridor
and the library.'
'My Lord,' answered the Minister, 'I will take the furniture and
the ghost at a valuation. I come from a modern country, where we
have everything that money can buy; and with all our spry young
fellows painting the Old World red, and carrying off your best
actresses and prima-donnas, I reckon that if there were such a
thing as a ghost in Europe, we'd have it at home in a very short
time in one of our public museums, or on the road as a show.'
'I fear that the ghost exists,' said Lord Canterville, smiling,
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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 Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche: a false conclusion. There are free insolent minds which would
fain conceal and deny that they are broken, proud, incurable
hearts (the cynicism of Hamlet--the case of Galiani); and
occasionally folly itself is the mask of an unfortunate OVER-
ASSURED knowledge.--From which it follows that it is the part of
a more refined humanity to have reverence "for the mask," and not
to make use of psychology and curiosity in the wrong place.
271. That which separates two men most profoundly is a different
sense and grade of purity. What does it matter about all their
honesty and reciprocal usefulness, what does it matter about all
their mutual good-will: the fact still remains--they "cannot
Beyond Good and Evil |
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 Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen: afraid he took something in my conduct amiss. Pray
explain everything to his satisfaction; or, if he
still harbours any doubt, a line from himself to
me, or a call at Putney when next in town, might
set all to rights. I have not been to the rooms
this age, nor to the play, except going in last
night with the Hodges, for a frolic, at half price:
they teased me into it; and I was determined they
should not say I shut myself up because Tilney was
gone. We happened to sit by the Mitchells, and they
pretended to be quite surprised to see me out. I
Northanger Abbey |
