| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Cratylus by Plato: and strengthening of vowels or by the shortening and weakening of them, by
the condensation or rarefaction of consonants. But who gave to language
these primeval laws; or why one race has triliteral, another biliteral
roots; or why in some members of a group of languages b becomes p, or d, t,
or ch, k; or why two languages resemble one another in certain parts of
their structure and differ in others; or why in one language there is a
greater development of vowels, in another of consonants, and the like--are
questions of which we only 'entertain conjecture.' We must remember the
length of time that has elapsed since man first walked upon the earth, and
that in this vast but unknown period every variety of language may have
been in process of formation and decay, many times over.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Caesar's Commentaries in Latin by Julius Caesar: Caesar his de causis quas commemoravi Rhenum transire decrevat; sed
navibus transire neque satis tutum esse arbitrabatur neque suae neque
populi Romani dignitatis esse statuebat. Itaque, etsi summa difficultas
faciendi pontis proponebatur propter latitudinem, rapiditatem
altitudinemque fluminis, tamen id sibi contendendum aut aliter non
traducendum exercitum existimabat. Rationem pontis hanc instituit. Tigna
bina sesquipedalia. paulum ab imo praeacuta dimensa ad altitudinem
fluminis intervallo pedum duorum inter se iungebat. Haec cum
machinationibus immissa in flumen defixerat fistucisque adegerat, non
sublicae modo derecte ad perpendiculum, sed prone ac fastigate, ut
secundum naturam fluminis procumberent, iis item contraria duo ad eundem
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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 Prince by Nicolo Machiavelli: that are not persisted in afterwards unless they can be turned to the
advantage of the subjects. The badly employed are those which,
notwithstanding they may be few in the commencement, multiply with
time rather than decrease. Those who practise the first system are
able, by aid of God or man, to mitigate in some degree their rule, as
Agathocles did. It is impossible for those who follow the other to
maintain themselves.
[*] Mr Burd suggests that this word probably comes near the modern
equivalent of Machiavelli's thought when he speaks of "crudelta"
than the more obvious "cruelties."
Hence it is to be remarked that, in seizing a state, the usurper ought
The Prince |
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 Travels with a Donkey in the Cevenne by Robert Louis Stevenson: mountain, is to rise to higher thoughts of the powers that are in
Nature.
Between Modestine's laggard humour and the beauty of the scene, we
made little progress all that afternoon; and at last finding the
sun, although still far from setting, was already beginning to
desert the narrow valley of the Tarn, I began to cast about for a
place to camp in. This was not easy to find; the terraces were too
narrow, and the ground, where it was unterraced, was usually too
steep for a man to lie upon. I should have slipped all night, and
awakened towards morning with my feet or my head in the river.
After perhaps a mile, I saw, some sixty feet above the road, a
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