| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Heroes by Charles Kingsley: Then Theseus flung him from him, and lifted up his dreadful
club; and before Procrustes could strike him he had struck,
and felled him to the ground.
And once again he struck him; and his evil soul fled forth,
and went down to Hades squeaking, like a bat into the
darkness of a cave.
Then Theseus stript him of his gold ornaments, and went up to
his house, and found there great wealth and treasure, which
he had stolen from the passers-by. And he called the people
of the country, whom Procrustes had spoiled a long time, and
parted the spoil among them, and went down the mountains, and
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Economist by Xenophon: that is another position we may fairly subscribe to."
[9] i.e. "without knowledge of how to use them."
[10] Or, "our discussion marches on all-fours, as it were."
Yes! (rejoined Socrates), presuming the owner knows how to sell them;
since, supposing again he were to sell them for something which he
does not know how to use,[11] the mere selling will not transform them
into wealth, according to your argument.
[11] Reading {pros touto o}, or if {pros touton, os}, transl. "to a
man who did not know how to use them."
Crit. You seem to say, Socrates, that money itself in the pockets of a
man who does not know how to use it is not wealth?
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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 The Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring by George Bernard Shaw: to fly into a panic and lock them up in prison whilst your
parliament is bit by bit doing exactly what they advised you to
do. When your Siegfrieds melt down the old weapons into new ones,
and with disrespectful words chop in twain the antiquated
constable's staves in the hands of their elders, the end of the
world is no nearer than it was before. If human nature, which is
the highest organization of life reached on this planet, is
really degenerating, then human society will decay; and no
panic-begotten penal measures can possibly save it: we must, like
Prometheus, set to work to make new men instead of vainly
torturing old ones. On the other hand, if the energy of life is
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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 Memories and Portraits by Robert Louis Stevenson: after was dashed lower than earth with a charge of plagiarism in
the SCOTSMAN. Report would have it (I daresay, very wrongly) that
he was betrayed by one in whom he particularly trusted, and that
the author of the charge had learned its truth from his own lips.
Thus, at least, he was up one day on a pinnacle, admired and envied
by all; and the next, though still but a boy, he was publicly
disgraced. The blow would have broken a less finely tempered
spirit; and even him I suppose it rendered reckless; for he took
flight to London, and there, in a fast club, disposed of the bulk
of his considerable patrimony in the space of one winter. For
years thereafter he lived I know not how; always well dressed,
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