| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Statesman by Plato: for if there could be such a despot as we describe, they would acknowledge
that we ought to be too glad to have him, and that he alone would be the
happy ruler of a true and perfect State.
YOUNG SOCRATES: To be sure.
STRANGER: But then, as the State is not like a beehive, and has no natural
head who is at once recognized to be the superior both in body and in mind,
mankind are obliged to meet and make laws, and endeavour to approach as
nearly as they can to the true form of government.
YOUNG SOCRATES: True.
STRANGER: And when the foundation of politics is in the letter only and in
custom, and knowledge is divorced from action, can we wonder, Socrates, at
Statesman |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle: when the moon was full and the dun deer in season; so that the King's rangers
kept a shrewd eye upon him and his doings, for Arthur a Bland's house was apt
to have aplenty of meat in it that was more like venison than the law allowed.
Now Arthur had been to Nottingham Town the day before Little John set
forth on his errand, there to sell a halfscore of tanned cowhides.
At the dawn of the same day that Little John left the inn,
he started from Nottingham, homeward for Blyth. His way led,
all in the dewy morn, past the verge of Sherwood Forest, where the birds
were welcoming the lovely day with a great and merry jubilee.
Across the Tanner's shoulders was slung his stout quarterstaff,
ever near enough to him to be gripped quickly, and on his head was
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Mayflower Compact: in the Presence of God and one of another, covenant and
combine ourselves together into a civill Body Politick,
for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance
of the Ends aforesaid; And by Virtue hereof do enact,
constitute, and frame, such just and equall Laws, Ordinances,
Acts, Constitutions, and Offices, from time to time,
as shall be thought most meete and convenient for the
Generall Good of the Colonie; unto which we promise
all due Submission and Obedience.
In Witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names
at Cape Cod the eleventh of November, in the Raigne of our
|
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 Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson: polity of multifarious, incongruous and independent denizens. I,
for my part, from the nature of my life, advanced infallibly in
one direction and in one direction only. It was on the moral
side, and in my own person, that I learned to recognise the
thorough and primitive duality of man; I saw that, of the two
natures that contended in the field of my consciousness, even if I
could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was
radically both; and from an early date, even before the course of
my scientific discoveries had begun to suggest the most naked
possibility of such a miracle, I had learned to dwell with
pleasure, as a beloved daydream, on the thought of the separation
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde |
