| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Turn of the Screw by Henry James: my vision was instantaneous; it was all there. The person looking
straight in was the person who had already appeared to me.
He appeared thus again with I won't say greater distinctness,
for that was impossible, but with a nearness that represented
a forward stride in our intercourse and made me, as I met him,
catch my breath and turn cold. He was the same--he was the same,
and seen, this time, as he had been seen before, from the waist up,
the window, though the dining room was on the ground floor, not going
down to the terrace on which he stood. His face was close to the glass,
yet the effect of this better view was, strangely, only to show me
how intense the former had been. He remained but a few seconds--
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Apology by Plato: that 'to suffer is better than to do evil;' and the art of rhetoric is
described as only useful for the purpose of self-accusation. The
parallelisms which occur in the so-called Apology of Xenophon are not worth
noticing, because the writing in which they are contained is manifestly
spurious. The statements of the Memorabilia respecting the trial and death
of Socrates agree generally with Plato; but they have lost the flavour of
Socratic irony in the narrative of Xenophon.
The Apology or Platonic defence of Socrates is divided into three parts:
1st. The defence properly so called; 2nd. The shorter address in mitigation
of the penalty; 3rd. The last words of prophetic rebuke and exhortation.
The first part commences with an apology for his colloquial style; he is,
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Symposium by Xenophon: last on Socrates.[6]
[6] "The Syracusan is 'civil as an orange, and of that jealous
complexion.'"
The Syr. They call you Socrates. Are you that person commonly
nicknamed the thinker?[7]
[7] Apparently he has been to see the "Clouds" (exhibited first in 423
B.C.), and has conceived certain ideas concerning Socrates, "a
wise man, who speculated about the heaven above, and searched into
the earth beneath, and made the worse appear the better cause."
Plat. "Apol." 18 B, 19 C. "Clouds," 101, 360, {khair o presbuta
. . . ton nun meteorosophiston . . . ta te meteora phrontistes}.
The Symposium |
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 Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum: 278 The Riches of Content
When the wonderful tidings reached the ears of Queen Jinjur -- how Mombi the
Witch had been captured; how she had confessed her crime to Glinda; and how
the long-lost Princess Ozma had been discovered in no less a personage than
the boy Tip -- she wept real tears of grief and despair.
"To think," she moaned, "that after having ruled as Queen, and lived in a
palace, I must go back to scrubbing floors and churning butter again! It is
too horrible to think of! I will never consent!"
So when her soldiers, who spent most of their time making fudge in the
palace kitchens, counseled Jinjur to resist, she listened to their foolish
prattle and sent a sharp defiance to Glinda the Good and the Princess Ozma.
The Marvelous Land of Oz |
