| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Long Odds by H. Rider Haggard: of their spare time there. But if there, the question was how to get
them out; for it was clearly impossible to think of going in after them
unless one was quite determined to commit suicide. Now there was a
strong wind blowing from the direction of the waggon, across the reedy
pan towards the bush-clad kloof or donga, and this first gave me the
idea of firing the reeds, which, as I think I told you, were pretty dry.
Accordingly Tom took some matches and began starting little fires to
the left, and I did the same to the right. But the reeds were still
green at the bottom, and we should never have got them well alight had
it not been for the wind, which grew stronger and stronger as the sun
climbed higher, and forced the fire into them. At last, after
Long Odds |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians by Martin Luther: wanted to say, "You are true Galatians, i.e., fallen away in name and in
fact." Some believe that the Germans are descended from the Galatians. There
may be something to that. For the Germans are not unlike the Galatians in
their lack of constancy. At first we Germans are very enthusiastic, but
presently our emotions cool and we become slack. When the light of the Gospel
first came to us many were zealous, heard sermons greedily, and held the
ministry of God's Word in high esteem. But now that religion has been
reformed, many who formerly were such earnest disciples have discarded the
Word of God, have become sow-bellies like the foolish and inconsistent
Galatians.
VERSE 6. From him that called you into the grace of Christ.
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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 Lesser Hippias by Plato: concerning the date and authorship of the writings which are ascribed to
him. And several of the citations of Aristotle omit the name of Plato, and
some of them omit the name of the dialogue from which they are taken.
Prior, however, to the enquiry about the writings of a particular author,
general considerations which equally affect all evidence to the genuineness
of ancient writings are the following: Shorter works are more likely to
have been forged, or to have received an erroneous designation, than longer
ones; and some kinds of composition, such as epistles or panegyrical
orations, are more liable to suspicion than others; those, again, which
have a taste of sophistry in them, or the ring of a later age, or the
slighter character of a rhetorical exercise, or in which a motive or some
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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 Thus Spake Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche: How hath that happened unto him? Is it not because he hath had to be
ashamed too oft?
O my friends! Thus speaketh the discerning one: shame, shame, shame--that
is the history of man!
And on that account doth the noble one enjoin upon himself not to abash:
bashfulness doth he enjoin on himself in presence of all sufferers.
Verily, I like them not, the merciful ones, whose bliss is in their pity:
too destitute are they of bashfulness.
If I must be pitiful, I dislike to be called so; and if I be so, it is
preferably at a distance.
Preferably also do I shroud my head, and flee, before being recognised:
Thus Spake Zarathustra |
