| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Twelve Stories and a Dream by H. G. Wells: witnessing, with sorrow still, though now, indeed, with a time-blunted
anguish, of the inappeasable hunger of the heart that presently
came upon him. "I couldn't eat," he said, "I couldn't sleep. I made
mistakes in orders and got mixed with change. There she was day
and night, drawing me and drawing me. Oh, I wanted her. Lord! how
I wanted her! I was up there, most evenings I was up there on the Knoll,
often even when it rained. I used to walk over the Knoll and round it
and round it, calling for them to let me in. Shouting. Near blubbering
I was at times. Daft I was and miserable. I kept on saying it was all
a mistake. And every Sunday afternoon I went up there, wet and fine,
though I knew as well as you do it wasn't no good by day. And I've
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lost Continent by Edgar Rice Burroughs: voluntarily so deserted an exposed coast and an excellent
harbor to the mercies of an enemy.
I found myself becoming more and more deeply involved in
quandary. The puzzle which confronted me I could not
unravel. We had landed, and I now stood upon the spot
where, according to my map, a large city should rear its
spires and chimneys. There was nothing but rough, broken
ground covered densely with weeds and brambles, and tall,
rank, grass.
Had a city ever stood there, no sign of it remained. The
roughness and unevenness of the ground suggested something
Lost Continent |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Statesman by Plato: connexion which is assumed by Plato to exist between politics and
dialectic. In both dialogues the Proteus Sophist is exhibited, first, in
the disguise of an Eristic, secondly, of a false statesman. There are
several lesser features which the two dialogues have in common. The styles
and the situations of the speakers are very similar; there is the same love
of division, and in both of them the mind of the writer is greatly occupied
about method, to which he had probably intended to return in the projected
'Philosopher.'
The Statesman stands midway between the Republic and the Laws, and is also
related to the Timaeus. The mythical or cosmical element reminds us of the
Timaeus, the ideal of the Republic. A previous chaos in which the elements
Statesman |
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 Poems by Bronte Sisters: Chartered, a common task to share
With thee, and then it stirs alert,
And pants to learn what menaced hurt
Demands for thee its care.
Remember, I have crossed the deep,
And stood with thee on deck, to gaze
On waves that rose in threatening heap,
While stagnant lay a heavy haze,
Dimly confusing sea with sky,
And baffling, even, the pilot's eye,
Intent to thread the maze--
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