| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy: and became visible to him. Adam had awakened from
his deep sleep, and behold! there was Eve. The
farmer took courage, and for the first time really looked
at her.
Material causes and emotional effects are not to be
arranged in regular equation. The result from capital
employed in the production of any movement of a
mental nature is sometimes as tremendous as the cause
itself is absurdly minute. When women are in a freakish
mood, their usual intuition, either from carelessness or
inherent defect, seemingly fails to teach them this, and
Far From the Madding Crowd |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Footnote to History by Robert Louis Stevenson: into the crow's-nest; the white men, briskly following, escaped
unhurt. The crow's-nest was built like a bartizan on the
precipitous front of the position. Across the ravine, perhaps at
five hundred yards, heads were to be seen popping up and down in a
fort of Tamesese's. On both sides the same enthusiasm without
council, the same senseless vigilance, reigned. Some took aim;
some blazed before them at a venture. Now - when a head showed on
the other side - one would take a crack at it, remarking that it
would never do to "miss a chance." Now they would all fire a
volley and bob down; a return volley rang across the ravine, and
was punctually answered: harmless as lawn-tennis. The whites
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare: I promise you, but for your company,
I would haue bin a bed an houre ago
Par. These times of wo, affoord no times to wooe:
Madam goodnight, commend me to your Daughter
Lady. I will, and know her mind early to morrow,
To night, she is mewed vp to her heauinesse
Cap. Sir Paris, I will make a desperate tender
Of my Childes loue: I thinke she will be rul'd
In all respects by me: nay more, I doubt it not.
Wife, go you to her ere you go to bed,
Acquaint her here, of my Sonne Paris Loue,
Romeo and Juliet |
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 The Apology by Xenophon: neither do so himself nor suffer his friends to do so for him, but
went so far as to say that to propose a counter-penalty was like a
confession of guilt. And afterwards, when his companions wished to
steal him out of prison,[43] he would not follow their lead, but would
seem to have treated the idea as a jest, by asking "whether they
happened to know of some place outside Attica where death was
forbidden to set foot?"
[40] {sunagoreuein}, L. and S. cf Thuc. vi. 6, "partisans," viii. 84,
"pleaded the case of" (Jowett).
[41] Or, "laid the greatest stress of not being guilty of impiety";
"attached the greatest importance to the fact that he was never
The Apology |
