| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Wife, et al by Anton Chekhov: hours -- the best time for intellectual work and social
intercourse. I say nothing of the waste of money and the moral
damage to the spectator when he sees murder, fornication, or
false witness unsuitably treated on the stage.
Katya was of an entirely different opinion. She assured me that
the theatre, even in its present condition, was superior to the
lecture-hall, to books, or to anything in the world. The stage
was a power that united in itself all the arts, and actors were
missionaries. No art nor science was capable of producing so
strong and so certain an effect on the soul of man as the stage,
and it was with good reason that an actor of medium quality
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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 Large Catechism by Dr. Martin Luther: contemplate ourselves in it as in a mirror, to regard the will of God,
and with hearty confidence and invocation of His name to commit to Him
the wrong which we suffer. Thus we shall suffer our enemies to rage and
be angry, doing what they can, and we learn to calm our wrath, and to
have a patient, gentle heart, especially toward those who give us cause
to be angry, that is, our enemies.
Therefore the entire sum of what it means not to kill is to be
impressed most explicitly upon the simple-minded. In the first place
that we harm no one, first, with our hand or by deed. Then, that we do
not employ our tongue to instigate or counsel thereto. Further, that we
neither use nor assent to any kind of means or methods whereby any one
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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 Mountains by Stewart Edward White: snake bands, red handkerchiefs, six-shooters, chaps,
and huge spurs that do not match his face. If it is
yachting, he has a chronometer with a gong in the
cabin of a five-ton sailboat, possesses a nickle-plated
machine to register the heel of his craft, sports a
brass-bound yachting-cap and all the regalia. This
is merely amusing. But I never could understand
his insane desire to get sunburned. A man will get
sunburned fast enough; he could not help it if he
would. Algernon usually starts out from town without
a hat. Then he dares not take off his sweater
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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 Lysis by Plato: he spoke, the words seeming to come from his lips involuntarily, because
his whole mind was taken up with the argument; there was no mistaking his
attentive look while he was listening.
I was pleased at the interest which was shown by Lysis, and I wanted to
give Menexenus a rest, so I turned to him and said, I think, Lysis, that
what you say is true, and that, if we had been right, we should never have
gone so far wrong; let us proceed no further in this direction (for the
road seems to be getting troublesome), but take the other path into which
we turned, and see what the poets have to say; for they are to us in a
manner the fathers and authors of wisdom, and they speak of friends in no
light or trivial manner, but God himself, as they say, makes them and draws
Lysis |
