| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Sophist by Plato: contradictions--how then can they both exist? Does he who affirms this
mean to say that motion is rest, or rest motion? 'No; he means to assert
the existence of some third thing, different from them both, which neither
rests nor moves.' But how can there be anything which neither rests nor
moves? Here is a second difficulty about being, quite as great as that
about not-being. And we may hope that any light which is thrown upon the
one may extend to the other.
Leaving them for the present, let us enquire what we mean by giving many
names to the same thing, e.g. white, good, tall, to man; out of which tyros
old and young derive such a feast of amusement. Their meagre minds refuse
to predicate anything of anything; they say that good is good, and man is
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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 Koran: them the gates of everything, until when they rejoiced at what they
had, we caught them up suddenly, and lo! they were in despair.
And the uttermost part of the people who did wrong were cut off;
praise be to God, Lord of the worlds!
Say, 'Look you now! if God should catch your hearing and your sight,
and should set a seal upon your hearts- who is god but God to bring
you it again?'
Say, 'Look you now! if God's torment should come you suddenly or
openly, would any perish save the people who do wrong?'
We do not send our messengers save as heralds of glad tidings and of
warning, and whoso believes and acts aright, there is no fear for
The Koran |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Talisman by Walter Scott: his beads devoutly, and flung himself on his rude couch, after a
glance at the still sleeping Moslem, and, wearied by the various
scenes of the day and the night, soon slept as sound as infancy.
Upon his awaking in the morning, he held certain conferences with
the hermit upon matters of importance, and the result of their
intercourse induced him to remain for two days longer in the
grotto. He was regular, as became a pilgrim, in his devotional
exercises, but was not again admitted to the chapel in which he
had seen such wonders.
CHAPTER VI.
Now change the scene--and let the trumpets sound,
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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 Mansion by Henry van Dyke: There was only one person besides the doctor in that little
company whom
John Weightman had known before--an old bookkeeper who had spent
his life
over a desk, carefully keeping accounts--a rusty, dull little
man,
patient and narrow, whose wife had been in the insane asylum for
twenty years and whose only child was a crippled daughter, for
whose
comfort and happiness he had toiled and sacrificed himself
without stint.
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