| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Statesman by Plato: directions for his patients or pupils, goes into a far country, and comes
back sooner than he intended; owing to some unexpected change in the
weather, the patient or pupil seems to require a different mode of
treatment: Would he persist in his old commands, under the idea that all
others are noxious and heterodox? Viewed in the light of science, would
not the continuance of such regulations be ridiculous? And if the
legislator, or another like him, comes back from a far country, is he to be
prohibited from altering his own laws? The common people say: Let a man
persuade the city first, and then let him impose new laws. But is a
physician only to cure his patients by persuasion, and not by force? Is he
a worse physician who uses a little gentle violence in effecting the cure?
Statesman |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Ivanhoe by Walter Scott: highness for a good deed, which will fulfil all promises
made in favour of your servant and vassal.''
``We will not forget it,'' said Prince John;
``and that we may instantly go to work, command
our seneschal presently to order the attendance of
the Lady Rowena and her company---that is, the
rude churl her guardian, and the Saxon ox whom
the Black Knight struck down in the tournament,
upon this evening's banquet.---De Bigot,'' he added
to his seneschal, ``thou wilt word this our second
summons so courteously, as to gratify the pride of
Ivanhoe |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Golden Threshold by Sarojini Naidu: Your proven strongholds shall remain
Embodied memories of your line,
Incarnate legends of your reign.
O Queens, in vain old Fate decreed
Your flower-like bodies to the tomb;
Death is in truth the vital seed
Of your imperishable bloom
Each new-born year the bulbuls sing
Their songs of your renascent loves;
Your beauty wakens with the spring
To kindle these pomegranate groves.
|
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 Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum: trying to get out again; so, although he came to several such chimneys
that night, he did not venture to descend any more of them.
"What in the world are people thinking of, to build such useless
chimneys?" he exclaimed. "In all the years I have traveled with my
reindeer I have never seen the like before."
True enough; but Santa Claus had not then discovered that stoves had
been invented and were fast coming into use. When he did find it out
he wondered how the builders of those houses could have so little
consideration for him, when they knew very well it was his custom to
climb down chimneys and enter houses by way of the fireplaces.
Perhaps the men who built those houses had outgrown their own love for
The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus |
