| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Of The Nature of Things by Lucretius: Whatever we see...
Given to senses, that thou must perceive
They're not from linked but pointed elements.
The which now having taught, I will go on
To bind thereto a fact to this allied
And drawing from this its proof: these primal germs
Vary, yet only with finite tale of shapes.
For were these shapes quite infinite, some seeds
Would have a body of infinite increase.
For in one seed, in one small frame of any,
The shapes can't vary from one another much.
Of The Nature of Things |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from King Henry VI by William Shakespeare: COMMONS.
[Within.] An answer from the king, my Lord of Salisbury!
SUFFOLK.
'T is like the commons, rude unpolish'd hinds,
Could send such message to their sovereign;
But you, my lord, were glad to be employ'd,
To show how quaint an orator you are.
But all the honour Salisbury hath won
Is that he was the lord ambassador
Sent from a sort of tinkers to the king.
COMMONS.
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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 Troll Garden and Selected Stories by Willa Cather: Yes, she knew, she knew well enough, of what absurdities
this spell was woven; she mocked, even while she winced. His
power, she knew, lay not so much in anything that he actually
had--though he had so much--or in anything that he actually was,
but in what he suggested, in what he seemed picturesque enough to
have or be and that was just anything that one chose to believe
or to desire. His appeal was all the more persuasive and alluring
in that it was to the imagination alone, in that it was as
indefinite and impersonal as those cults of idealism which so
have their way with women. What he had was that, in his mere
personality, he quickened and in a measure gratified that
The Troll Garden and Selected Stories |
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 On Revenues by Xenophon: to meet all the needs. All I can say is, even so, do not dispond. It
is not as if it were necessary that every feature of the scheme should
be carried out at once, or else there is to be no advantage in it at
all. On the contrary, whatever number of houses are erected, or ships
are built, or slaves purchased, etc., these portions will begin to pay
at once. In fact, the bit-by-bit method of proceeding will be more
advantageous than a simultaneous carrying into effect of the whole
plan, to this extent: if we set about erecting buildings wholesale[41]
we shall make a more expensive and worse job of it than if we finish
them off gradually. Again, if we set about bidding for hundreds of
slaves at once we shall be forced to purchase an inferior type at a
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