| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Hated Son by Honore de Balzac: their heart. The duke (for about this time Henri IV. rewarded the
services of the Seigneur d'Herouville with a dukedom), not wishing, he
said, to fatigue his wife, gave the nursing of the youngest boy to a
stout peasant-woman chosen by Beauvouloir, and announced his
determination to bring up the child in his own manner. He gave him, as
time went on, a holy horror of books and study; taught him the
mechanical knowledge required by a military career, made him a good
rider, a good shot with an arquebuse, and skilful with his dagger.
When the boy was big enough he took him to hunt, and let him acquire
the savage language, the rough manners, the bodily strength, and the
vivacity of look and speech which to his mind were the attributes of
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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 Second Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling: his milk-tushes my trail was big in the dust. By the First Egg,
I am older than many trees, and I have seen all that the Jungle
has done."
"But THIS is new hunting," said Mowgli. "Never before have the
dhole crossed our trail."
"What is has been. What will be is no more than a forgotten year
striking backward. Be still while I count those my years."
For a long hour Mowgli lay back among the coils, while Kaa,
his head motionless on the ground, thought of all that he had
seen and known since the day he came from the egg. The light
seemed to go out of his eyes and leave them like stale opals,
The Second Jungle Book |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Disputation of the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences by Dr. Martin Luther: 19. Nec hoc probatum esse videtur, quod sint de sua beatitudine
certe et secure, saltem omnes, licet nos certissimi simus.
20. Igitur papa per remissionem plenariam omnium penarum non
simpliciter omnium intelligit, sed a seipso tantummodo
impositarum.
21. Errant itaque indulgentiarum predicatores ii, qui dicunt per
pape indulgentias hominem ab omni pena solvi et salvari.
22. Quin nullam remittit animabus in purgatorio, quam in hac vita
debuissent secundum Canones solvere.
23. Si remissio ulla omnium omnino penarum potest alicui dari,
certum est eam non nisi perfectissimis, i.e. paucissimis, dari.
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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 Lysis by Plato: Yes.
And the hated one, and not the hater, is the enemy?
Clearly.
Then many men are loved by their enemies, and hated by their friends, and
are the friends of their enemies, and the enemies of their friends. Yet
how absurd, my dear friend, or indeed impossible is this paradox of a man
being an enemy to his friend or a friend to his enemy.
I quite agree, Socrates, in what you say.
But if this cannot be, the lover will be the friend of that which is loved?
True.
And the hater will be the enemy of that which is hated?
Lysis |
