| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Hiero by Xenophon: disbursement more legitimate[1] than those expended on his personal
account. But let us look into the question point by point.
[1] {eis to deon}. Holden cf. "Anab." I. iii. 8. Aristoph. "Clouds,"
859, {osper Periklees eis to deon apolesa}: "Like Pericles, for a
necessary purpose, I have lost them."
First, the palace: do you imagine that a building, beautified in every
way at an enormous cost, will afford you greater pride and ornament
than a whole city ringed with walls and battlements, whose furniture
consists of temples and pillared porticoes,[2] harbours, market-
places?
[2] Reading {parastasi}, properly "pillasters" (Poll. i. 76. 10. 25) =
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Juana by Honore de Balzac: who, in preceding centuries, gathered around them the cassock, gown,
and sword. An Imperia built I forget which church in Rome in a frenzy
of repentance, as Rhodope built, in earlier times, a pyramid in Egypt.
The name Marana, inflicted at first as a disgrace upon the singular
family with which we are now concerned, had ended by becoming its
veritable name and by ennobling its vice by incontestable antiquity.
One day, a day of opulence or of penury I know not which, for this
event was a secret between herself and God, but assuredly it was in a
moment of repentance and melancholy, this Marana of the nineteenth
century stood with her feet in the slime and her head raised to
heaven. She cursed the blood in her veins, she cursed herself, she
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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 Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen: had accepted their uncle's invitation, and was then in the house.
When this information was given, and they had all taken their
seats, Mr. collins was at leisure to look around him and admire,
and he was so much struck with the size and furniture of the
apartment, that he declared he might almost have supposed
himself in the small summer breakfast parlour at Rosings; a
comparison that did not at first convey much gratification; but
when Mrs. Phillips understood from him what Rosings was, and
who was its proprietor-- when she had listened to the description
of only one of Lady Catherine's drawing-rooms, and found that
the chimney-piece alone had cost eight hundred pounds, she felt
Pride and Prejudice |
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 Songs of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: As in the holy house of yore
The willing Eli ran.
Here, lady, lo! that servant stands
You picked from passing men,
And should you need nor heart nor hands
He bows and goes again.
VIII
TO you, let snow and roses
And golden locks belong.
These are the world's enslavers,
Let these delight the throng.
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