| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Symposium by Xenophon: But what if the thought arose within him:[79] his it is not merely to
add lustre to himself and to his father, but that he has ability,
through help of manly virtue, to benefit his friends and to exalt his
fatherland, by trophies which he will set up against our enemies in
war,[80] whereby he will himself become the admired of all observers,
nay, a name to be remembered among Hellenes and barbarians.[81] Would
he not in that case, think you, make much of[82] one whom he regarded
as his bravest fellow-worker, laying at his feet the greatest honours?
[79] Cf. Theogn. 947:
{patrida kosmeso, liparen polin, out' epi demo
trepsas out' adikois andrasi peithomenos}.
The Symposium |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald: but the threat of the red flag is certainly the inspiring force
of all reform. You've got to be sensational to get attention."
"Russia is your example of a beneficent violence, I suppose?"
"Quite possibly," admitted Amory. "Of course, it's overflowing
just as the French Revolution did, but I've no doubt that it's
really a great experiment and well worth while."
"Don't you believe in moderation?"
"You won't listen to the moderates, and it's almost too late. The
truth is that the public has done one of those startling and
amazing things that they do about once in a hundred years.
They've seized an idea."
This Side of Paradise |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from St. Ives by Robert Louis Stevenson: I suppose this woke me up; it stirred in me besides a spirit of
opposition, and in spite of cold, darkness, the highwaymen and the
footpads, I determined to walk right on till breakfast-time: a
happy resolution, which enabled me to observe one of those traits
of manners which at once depict a country and condemn it. It was
near midnight when I saw, a great way ahead of me, the light of
many torches; presently after, the sound of wheels reached me, and
the slow tread of feet, and soon I had joined myself to the rear of
a sordid, silent, and lugubrious procession, such as we see in
dreams. Close on a hundred persons marched by torchlight in
unbroken silence; in their midst a cart, and in the cart, on an
|
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 Unseen World and Other Essays by John Fiske: father, a lawyer by profession, was the first instructor of his
son, and taught him Latin, and from an uncle, who had been in
America, he learned English, while still a mere child. Having
gone to Paris with his mother in 1842, he began his studies at
the College Bourbon and in 1848 was promoted to the ecole
Normale. Weiss, About, and Prevost-Paradol were his
contemporaries at this institution. At that time great liberty
was enjoyed in regard to the order and the details of the
exercises; so that Taine, with his surprising rapidity, would do
in one week the work laid out for a month, and would spend the
remainder of the time in private reading. In 1851 he left
The Unseen World and Other Essays |
