| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Emerald City of Oz by L. Frank Baum: "That's it! that's it!" screamed a fat choppingknife. "We'll make
mincemeat of the girl and hash of the chicken and sausage of the dog!"
There was a shout of approval at this and the King had to rap again
for order.
"Gentlemen, gentlemen!" he said, "your remarks are somewhat cutting
and rather disjointed, as might be expected from such acute
intellects. But you give me no reasons for your demands."
"See here, Kleaver; you make me tired," said a saucepan, strutting
before the King very impudently. "You're about the worst King that
ever reigned in Utensia, and that's saying a good deal. Why don't you
run things yourself, instead of asking everybody's advice, like the
The Emerald City of Oz |
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 Golden Sayings of Epictetus by Epictetus: rub shoulders with a soot-stained man without sharing the soot
oneself. What will you do, supposing the talk turns on
gladiators, or horses, or prize-fighters, or (what is worse) on
persons, condemning this and that, approving the other? Or
suppose a man sneers and jeers or shows a malignant temper? Has
any among us the skill of the lute-player, who knows at the first
touch which strings are out of tune and sets the instrument
right: has any of you such power as Socrates had, in all his
intercourse with men, of winning them over to his own
convictions? Nay, but you must needs be swayed hither and thither
by the uninstructed. How comes it then that they prove so much
The Golden Sayings of Epictetus |
