| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Grimm's Fairy Tales by Brothers Grimm: windows and looked out. Everything was ready, and all the pomp and
brightness of the court was there. Then she bitterly grieved for the
pride and folly which had brought her so low. And the servants gave
her some of the rich meats, which she put into her basket to take
home.
All on a sudden, as she was going out, in came the king's son in
golden clothes; and when he saw a beautiful woman at the door, he took
her by the hand, and said she should be his partner in the dance; but
she trembled for fear, for she saw that it was King Grisly-beard, who
was making sport of her. However, he kept fast hold, and led her in;
and the cover of the basket came off, so that the meats in it fell
Grimm's Fairy Tales |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Pivot of Civilization by Margaret Sanger: barren substratum of our civilization, try to imagine a population
active, resistant, passing individual and social lives of the most
contented and healthy sort. Would such men and women, liberated from
our endless, unceasing struggle against mass prejudice and inertia, be
deprived in any way of the stimulating zest of life? Would they sink
into a slough of complacency and fatuity?
No! Life for them would be enriched, intensified and ennobled in a
fashion it is difficult for us in our spiritual and physical squalor
even to imagine. There would be a new renaissance of the arts and
sciences. Awakened at last to the proximity of the treasures of life
lying all about them, the children of that age would be inspired by a
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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 Riverman by Stewart Edward White: new mill.
"Sluice open all right," commented Orde. "Thought she might be
closed."
"I saw to that," rejoined North in an injured tone.
"'Course," agreed Orde, "but he might have dropped her shut on you
between times, when you weren't looking."
He walked out on the structure and looked down on the smooth water
rushing through.
"Ought to make a draw," he reflected. Then he laughed. "Tom, look
here," he called. "Climb down and take a squint at this."
North clambered to a position below.
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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 Lesser Hippias by Plato: Hippias has been making? Why do you not either refute his words, if he
seems to you to have been wrong in any point, or join with us in commending
him? There is the more reason why you should speak, because we are now
alone, and the audience is confined to those who may fairly claim to take
part in a philosophical discussion.
SOCRATES: I should greatly like, Eudicus, to ask Hippias the meaning of
what he was saying just now about Homer. I have heard your father,
Apemantus, declare that the Iliad of Homer is a finer poem than the Odyssey
in the same degree that Achilles was a better man than Odysseus; Odysseus,
he would say, is the central figure of the one poem and Achilles of the
other. Now, I should like to know, if Hippias has no objection to tell me,
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