| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Sanitary and Social Lectures by Charles Kingsley: but to play with, if we like. And I believe--for the world, as
you will find, is full not only of just but of generous souls--
that if the water-supply were set really right, there would be
found, in many a city, many a generous man who, over and above his
compulsory water-rate, would give his poor fellow-townsmen such a
real fountain as those which ennoble the great square at
Carcasonne and the great square at Nismes; to be 'a thing of
beauty and a joy for ever.'"
"And now, if you want to go back to your Latin and Greek, you
shall translate for me into Latin--I do not expect you to do it
into Greek, though it would turn very well into Greek, for the
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from On the Duty of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau: and for a long period continue, to rule is not because they
are most likely to be in the right, nor because this seems
fairest to the minority, but because they are physically the
strongest. But a government in which the majority rule in
all cases can not be based on justice, even as far as men
understand it. Can there not be a government in which the
majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but
conscience?--in which majorities decide only those questions
to which the rule of expediency is applicable? Must the
citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign
his conscience to the legislator? WHy has every man a
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from De Profundis by Oscar Wilde: Humility, like the artistic, acceptance of all experiences, is
merely a mode of manifestation. It is man's soul that Christ is
always looking for. He calls it 'God's Kingdom,' and finds it in
every one. He compares it to little things, to a tiny seed, to a
handful of leaven, to a pearl. That is because one realises one's
soul only by getting rid of all alien passions, all acquired
culture, and all external possessions, be they good or evil.
I bore up against everything with some stubbornness of will and
much rebellion of nature, till I had absolutely nothing left in the
world but one thing. I had lost my name, my position, my
happiness, my freedom, my wealth. I was a prisoner and a pauper.
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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 Walden by Henry David Thoreau: hook down the lid, and so have freedom in his love, and in his soul
be free. This did not appear the worst, nor by any means a
despicable alternative. You could sit up as late as you pleased,
and, whenever you got up, go abroad without any landlord or
house-lord dogging you for rent. Many a man is harassed to death to
pay the rent of a larger and more luxurious box who would not have
frozen to death in such a box as this. I am far from jesting.
Economy is a subject which admits of being treated with levity, but
it cannot so be disposed of. A comfortable house for a rude and
hardy race, that lived mostly out of doors, was once made here
almost entirely of such materials as Nature furnished ready to their
Walden |
