| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Mayflower Compact: the eighteenth, and of Scotland, the fiftie-fourth,
Anno. Domini, 1620.
Mr. John Carver Mr. Stephen Hopkins
Mr. William Bradford Digery Priest
Mr. Edward Winslow Thomas Williams
Mr. William Brewster Gilbert Winslow
Isaac Allerton Edmund Margesson
Miles Standish Peter Brown
John Alden Richard Bitteridge
John Turner George Soule
Francis Eaton Edward Tilly
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Touchstone by Edith Wharton: comprehensiveness of the temptation. If only he had been less
sure of Dinslow! His assurance gave the situation the base
element of safety.
"I don't understand you," she faltered.
"Trust me, instead!" he adjured her, with sudden energy; and
turning on her abruptly, "If you go, you know, you go free," he
concluded.
She drew back, paling a little. "Why do you make it harder for
me?"
"To make it easier for myself," he retorted.
IV
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Nada the Lily by H. Rider Haggard: wizards, who can pass hither and thither at will. But I say this to
you, captain of the king, if you will go on the Ghost Mountain, you
must go there alone with your soldiers, for none in these parts dare
to tread upon that mountain."
"Yet I shall dare to-morrow," said the captain. "We grow brave at the
kraal of Chaka. There men do not fear spears or ghosts or wild beasts
or magic, but they fear the king's word alone. The sun sets--give us
food. To-morrow we will search the mountain."
Thus, my father, did this captain speak in his folly,--he who should
never see another sun.
Now Umslopogaas reached the mountain, and when he had passed the
Nada the Lily |
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 Protagoras by Plato: right moment; for he has a wisdom, Protagoras, which, as I imagine, is more
than human and of very ancient date, and may be as old as Simonides or even
older. Learned as you are in many things, you appear to know nothing of
this; but I know, for I am a disciple of his. And now, if I am not
mistaken, you do not understand the word 'hard' (chalepon) in the sense
which Simonides intended; and I must correct you, as Prodicus corrects me
when I use the word 'awful' (deinon) as a term of praise. If I say that
Protagoras or any one else is an 'awfully' wise man, he asks me if I am not
ashamed of calling that which is good 'awful'; and then he explains to me
that the term 'awful' is always taken in a bad sense, and that no one
speaks of being 'awfully' healthy or wealthy, or of 'awful' peace, but of
|
