| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Off on a Comet by Jules Verne: He shook his head doubtfully. "It is very little; indeed, it is
too little, your Excellency. Consider, it is the only steelyard
in all this new world of ours; it is worth more, much more.
If I take your deposit it must be in gold--all gold.
But how much do you agree to give me for the hire--
the hire, one day?"
"You shall have twenty francs," said Servadac.
"Oh, it is dirt cheap; but never mind, for one day, you shall have it.
Deposit in gold money a hundred francs, and twenty francs for the hire."
The old man folded his hands in meek resignation.
"The fellow knows how to make a good bargain," said Servadac, as Isaac,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Phaedo by Plato: language may be compared to that of some modern philosophers, who speak of
eternity, not in the sense of perpetual duration of time, but as an ever-
present quality of the soul. Yet at the conclusion of the Dialogue, having
'arrived at the end of the intellectual world' (Republic), he replaces the
veil of mythology, and describes the soul and her attendant genius in the
language of the mysteries or of a disciple of Zoroaster. Nor can we fairly
demand of Plato a consistency which is wanting among ourselves, who
acknowledge that another world is beyond the range of human thought, and
yet are always seeking to represent the mansions of heaven or hell in the
colours of the painter, or in the descriptions of the poet or rhetorician.
15. The doctrine of the immortality of the soul was not new to the Greeks
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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 Historical Lecturers and Essays by Charles Kingsley: garden, kept trim by those who know the treasure which they own,
stood Harold's two standards of the fighting-man and the dragon of
Wessex. And here, close by (for here, for many a century, stood the
high altar of Battle Abbey, where monks sang masses for Harold's
soul), upon this very spot the Swan-neck found her hero-lover's
corpse. "Ah," says many an Englishman--and who will blame him for
it--"how grand to have died beneath that standard on that day!"
Yes, and how right. And yet how right, likewise, that the Norman's
cry of DEXAIE!--"God Help!"--and not the English hurrah, should have
won that day, till William rode up Mountjoye in the afternoon to see
the English army, terrible even in defeat, struggling through copse
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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 Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: "Have it your own away," said Chichikov, with assumed indifference.
"As a matter of fact, I am not purchasing for profit, as you suppose,
but to humour a certain whim of mine. Two and a half roubles is the
most that I can offer."
"Bless your heart!" retorted the host. "At least give me thirty
roubles in assignats, and take the lot."
"No, for I see that you are unwilling to sell. I must say good-day to
you."
"Hold on, hold on!" exclaimed Sobakevitch, retaining his guest's hand,
and at the same moment treading heavily upon his toes--so heavily,
indeed, that Chichikov gasped and danced with the pain.
Dead Souls |
