| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Charmides and Other Poems by Oscar Wilde: The minor chord which ends the harmony,
And for its answering brother waits in vain
Sobbing for incompleted melody,
Dies a swan's death; but I the heir of pain,
A silent Memnon with blank lidless eyes,
Wait for the light and music of those suns which never rise.
The quenched-out torch, the lonely cypress-gloom,
The little dust stored in the narrow urn,
The gentle XAIPE of the Attic tomb, -
Were not these better far than to return
To my old fitful restless malady,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Iliad by Homer: already close beside you. Now, therefore, heed what I say, for I
come as a messenger from Jove; he says that the gods are angry
with you, and himself more angry than them all, in that you keep
Hector at the ships and will not give him up. Therefore let him
go, and accept a ransom for his body."
And Achilles answered, "So be it. If Olympian Jove of his own
motion thus commands me, let him that brings the ransom bear the
body away."
Thus did mother and son talk together at the ships in long
discourse with one another. Meanwhile the son of Saturn sent Iris
to the strong city of Ilius. "Go," said he, "fleet Iris, from the
The Iliad |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Memorabilia by Xenophon: craft; he must play the part of watchman, of robber; now prodigal as a
spendthrift, and again close-fisted as a miser, the bounty of his
munificence must be equalled by the narrowness of his greed;
impregnable in defence, a very dare-devil in attack--these and many
other qualities must he possess who is to make a good general and
minister of war; they must come to him by gift of nature or through
science. No doubt it is a grand thing also to be a tactician, since
there is all the difference in the world between an army properly
handled in the field and the same in disorder; just as stones and
bricks, woodwork and tiles, tumbled together in a heap are of no use
at all, but arrange them in a certain order--at bottom and atop
The Memorabilia |
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 Wife, et al by Anton Chekhov: Ivanovna, rosy and unassuming as always, was sitting at a little
table sewing at her husband's shirt. Fyodor, sullen and gloomy,
was staring at her from one corner, and in the other sat
Pobyedimsky, snorting angrily and retreating into the high collar
of his shi rt. My uncle was walking up and down the room
thinking. Silence reigned; nothing was to be heard but the
rustling of the linen in Tatyana Ivanovna's hands. Suddenly my
uncle stood still before Tatyana Ivanovna, and said:
"You are all so young, so fresh, so nice, you live so peacefully
in this quiet place, that I envy you. I have become attached to
your way of life here; my heart aches when I remember I have to
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