| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Moby Dick by Herman Melville: CHAPTER 9
The Sermon.
Father Mapple rose, and in a mild voice of unassuming authority
ordered the scattered people to condense. "Starboard gangway,
there! side away to larboard--larboard gangway to starboard!
Midships! midships!"
There was a low rumbling of heavy sea-boots among the benches, and a
still slighter shuffling of women's shoes, and all was quiet again,
and every eye on the preacher.
He paused a little; then kneeling in the pulpit's bows, folded his
large brown hands across his chest, uplifted his closed eyes, and
Moby Dick |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Eryxias by Platonic Imitator: CRITIAS: True.
SOCRATES: And seeing that a man is best off when he is least in need of
such things, does not the same reasoning apply to the case of any two
persons, of whom one has many and great wants and desires, and the other
few and moderate? For instance, some men are gamblers, some drunkards, and
some gluttons: and gambling and the love of drink and greediness are all
desires?
CRITIAS: Certainly.
SOCRATES: But desires are only the lack of something: and those who have
the greatest desires are in a worse condition than those who have none or
very slight ones?
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Second Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling: When he could make himself heard through the pattering mud,
he said: "What Man-Pack lair here by the marshes, Mysa? This is
new Jungle to me."
"Go north, then," roared the angry bull, for Mowgli had pricked
him rather sharply. "It was a naked cow-herd's jest. Go and tell
them at the village at the foot of the marsh."
"The Man-Pack do not love jungle-tales, nor do I think, Mysa,
that a scratch more or less on thy hide is any matter for a
council. But I will go and look at this village. Yes, I will go.
Softly now. It is not every night that the Master of the Jungle
comes to herd thee."
The Second Jungle Book |
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 Euthydemus by Plato: CRITO: I have often told you, Socrates, that I am in a constant difficulty
about my two sons. What am I to do with them? There is no hurry about the
younger one, who is only a child; but the other, Critobulus, is getting on,
and needs some one who will improve him. I cannot help thinking, when I
hear you talk, that there is a sort of madness in many of our anxieties
about our children:--in the first place, about marrying a wife of good
family to be the mother of them, and then about heaping up money for them--
and yet taking no care about their education. But then again, when I
contemplate any of those who pretend to educate others, I am amazed. To
me, if I am to confess the truth, they all seem to be such outrageous
beings: so that I do not know how I can advise the youth to study
|
