| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Symposium by Xenophon: grudge it to no man now. To all my friends without distinction I am
ready to display my opulence: come one, come all; and whosoever likes
to take a share is welcome to the wealth that lies within my soul.
Yes, and moreover, that most luxurious of possessions,[65] unbroken
leisure, you can see, is mine, which leaves me free to contemplate
things worthy of contemplation,[66] and to drink in with my ears all
charming sounds. And what I value most, freedom to spend whole days in
pure scholastic intercourse[67] with Socrates, to whom I am
devoted.[68] And he, on his side, is not the person to admire those
whose tale of gold and silver happens to be the largest, but those who
are well-pleasing to him he chooses for companions, and will consort
The Symposium |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Concerning Christian Liberty by Martin Luther: servants, and stewards, who are to serve the rest in the ministry
of the word, for teaching the faith of Christ and the liberty of
believers. For though it is true that we are all equally priests,
yet we cannot, nor, if we could, ought we all to, minister and
teach publicly. Thus Paul says, "Let a man so account of us as of
the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God" (1
Cor. iv. 1).
This bad system has now issued in such a pompous display of power
and such a terrible tyranny that no earthly government can be
compared to it, as if the laity were something else than
Christians. Through this perversion of things it has happened
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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 The Complete Angler by Izaak Walton: made against the destruction of fish: and though I profess no knowledge
of the law, yet I am sure the regulation of these defects might be easily
mended. But I remember that a wise friend of mine did usually say, "
that which is everybody's business is nobody's business ": if it were
otherwise, there could not be so many nets and fish, that are under the
statute size, sold daily amongst us; and of which the conservators of the
waters should be ashamed.
But, above all, the taking fish in spawning-time may be said to be
against nature: it is like taking the dam on the nest when she hatches
her young, a sin so against nature, that Almighty God hath in the
Levitical law made a law against it.
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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 To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf: narrow his little blue eyes upon the horizon), one that needs, above all,
courage, truth, and the power to endure.
"But it may be fine--I expect it will be fine," said Mrs Ramsay, making
some little twist of the reddish brown stocking she was knitting,
impatiently. If she finished it tonight, if they did go to the Lighthouse
after all, it was to be given to the Lighthouse keeper for his little boy,
who was threatened with a tuberculous hip; together with a pile of old
magazines, and some tobacco, indeed, whatever she could find lying about,
not really wanted, but only littering the room, to give those poor
fellows, who must be bored to death sitting all day with nothing to do but
polish the lamp and trim the wick and rake about on their scrap of garden,
To the Lighthouse |
