| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Men of Iron by Howard Pyle: venture! Wouldst get thyself shot with a bolt betwixt the ribs,
like poor Diccon Cook?"
Of all places about the castle the privy garden was perhaps the
most sacred. It was a small plot of ground, only a few rods long
and wide, and was kept absolutely private for the use of the
Countess and her family. Only a little while before Myles had
first come to Devlen, one of the cook's men had been found
climbing the wall, whereupon the soldier who saw him shot him
with his cross bow. The poor fellow dropped from the wall into
the garden, and when they found him, he still held a bunch of
flowers in his hand, which he had perhaps been gathering for his
Men of Iron |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Symposium by Plato: wanting many touches of humour and fancy, which remind us of the Symposium.
But while the Phaedo and Phaedrus look backwards and forwards to past and
future states of existence, in the Symposium there is no break between this
world and another; and we rise from one to the other by a regular series of
steps or stages, proceeding from the particulars of sense to the universal
of reason, and from one universal to many, which are finally reunited in a
single science (compare Rep.). At first immortality means only the
succession of existences; even knowledge comes and goes. Then follows, in
the language of the mysteries, a higher and a higher degree of initiation;
at last we arrive at the perfect vision of beauty, not relative or
changing, but eternal and absolute; not bounded by this world, or in or out
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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 Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche: hatred of the virgin forest and of the tropics among moralists?
And that the "tropical man" must be discredited at all costs,
whether as disease and deterioration of mankind, or as his own
hell and self-torture? And why? In favour of the "temperate
zones"? In favour of the temperate men? The "moral"? The
mediocre?--This for the chapter: "Morals as Timidity."
198. All the systems of morals which address themselves with a
view to their "happiness," as it is called--what else are they
but suggestions for behaviour adapted to the degree of DANGER
from themselves in which the individuals live; recipes for their
passions, their good and bad propensities, insofar as such have
Beyond Good and Evil |
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 Flame and Shadow by Sara Teasdale: In your quietness you house
The wind, the woman and the bird.
You speak to me and I have heard:
If I am peaceful, I shall see
Beauty's face continually;
Feeding on her wine and bread
I shall be wholly comforted,
For she can make one day for me
Rich as my lost eternity.
[End of original text.]
Biographical Note:
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