| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Reason Discourse by Rene Descartes: accorded to these demonstrations, is founded solely upon this, that they
are clearly conceived in accordance with the rules I have already laid
down In the next place, I perceived that there was nothing at all in these
demonstrations which could assure me of the existence of their object:
thus, for example, supposing a triangle to be given, I distinctly
perceived that its three angles were necessarily equal to two right
angles, but I did not on that account perceive anything which could assure
me that any triangle existed: while, on the contrary, recurring to the
examination of the idea of a Perfect Being, I found that the existence of
the Being was comprised in the idea in the same way that the equality of
its three angles to two right angles is comprised in the idea of a
Reason Discourse |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: trouble conclude identical agreements; though, in the first instance,
he always tried, by getting on terms of acquaintanceship--better
still, of friendship--with them, to acquire the souls for nothing, and
so to avoid purchase at all. In passing, my readers must not blame me
if the characters whom they have encountered in these pages have not
been altogether to their liking. The fault is Chichikov's rather than
mine, for he is the master, and where he leads we must follow. Also,
should my readers gird at me for a certain dimness and want of clarity
in my principal characters and actors, that will be tantamount to
saying that never do the broad tendency and the general scope of a
work become immediately apparent. Similarly does the entry to every
Dead Souls |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Poems of Goethe, Bowring, Tr. by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: My annoyance has graven itself in my mind, and hereafter
I could not bear at the piano to see her, or list to her singing."
But the father sprang up, and said, in words full of anger
"Little comfort you give me, in truth! I always have said it,
When you took pleasure in horses, and cared for nothing but fieldwork;
That which the servants of prosperous people perform as their duty,
You yourself do; meanwhile the father his son must dispense with,
Who in his honour was wont to court the rest of the townsfolk.
Thus with empty hopes your mother early deceived me,
When your reading, and writing, and learning at school ne'er succeeded
Like the rest of the boys, and so you were always the lowest.
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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 The Two Noble Kinsmen by William Shakespeare: Shall any thing that loves me perish for me?
That were a cruell wisedome; doe men proyne
The straight yong Bowes that blush with thousand Blossoms,
Because they may be rotten? O Duke Theseus,
The goodly Mothers that have groand for these,
And all the longing Maides that ever lov'd,
If your vow stand, shall curse me and my Beauty,
And in their funerall songs for these two Cosens
Despise my crueltie, and cry woe worth me,
Till I am nothing but the scorne of women;
For heavens sake save their lives, and banish 'em.
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