| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Economist by Xenophon: added), we are all friends here; make a clean breast of it, and tell
us, Critobulus, the plain unvarnished truth: Is there an one to whom
you are more in the habit of entrusting matters of importance than to
your wife?
[12] Cf. "Horsemanship," vi. 5, of a horse "to show vice."
[13] Or, "things beautiful and of good report."
[14] Al. "has treated her as a dunce, devoid of this high knowledge."
Crit. There is no one.
Soc. And is there any one with whom you are less in the habit of
conversing than with your wife?
Crit. Not many, I am forced to admit.
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from My Antonia by Willa Cather: and I go with him to carry the vessels with the Holy Sacrament.
Everybody that go near that camp catch the sickness but me and the priest.
But we have no sickness, we have no fear, because we carry that blood
and that body of Christ, and it preserve us.' He paused, looking
at grandfather. `That I know, Mr. Burden, for it happened to myself.
All the soldiers know, too. When we walk along the road, the old priest
and me, we meet all the time soldiers marching and officers on horse.
All those officers, when they see what I carry under the cloth, pull up
their horses and kneel down on the ground in the road until we pass.
So I feel very bad for my kawntree-man to die without the Sacrament,
and to die in a bad way for his soul, and I feel sad for his family.'
My Antonia |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Cratylus by Plato: thought that the closing and pressure of the tongue in the utterance of
delta and tau was expressive of binding and rest in a place: he further
observed the liquid movement of lambda, in the pronunciation of which the
tongue slips, and in this he found the expression of smoothness, as in
leios (level), and in the word oliothanein (to slip) itself, liparon
(sleek), in the word kollodes (gluey), and the like: the heavier sound of
gamma detained the slipping tongue, and the union of the two gave the
notion of a glutinous clammy nature, as in glischros, glukus, gloiodes.
The nu he observed to be sounded from within, and therefore to have a
notion of inwardness; hence he introduced the sound in endos and entos:
alpha he assigned to the expression of size, and nu of length, because they
|
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 Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey: ever yearned. He, after disrupting the calm tenor of her peace,
after bringing down on her head the implacable hostility of her
churchmen, after teaching her a bitter lesson of life--he was to
be her salvation. And he turned away again, this time shaken to
the core of his soul. Jane Withersteen was the incarnation of
selflessness. He experienced wonder and terror, exquisite pain
and rapture. What were all the shocks life had dealt him compared
to the thought of such loyal and generous friendship?
And instantly, as if by some divine insight, he knew himself in
the remaking--tried, found wanting; but stronger, better,
surer--and he wheeled to Jane Withersteen, eager, joyous,
Riders of the Purple Sage |
