| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Father Goriot by Honore de Balzac: great colleges and schools there, and assemble young men in the
capital; how it is that pretty women are respected, or that the
gold coin displayed in the money-changer's wooden saucers does
not take to itself wings in the twinkling of an eye; and when you
come to think further, how comparatively few cases of crime there
are, and to count up the misdemeanors committed by youth, is
there not a certain amount of respect due to these patient
Tantaluses who wrestle with themselves and nearly always come off
victorious? The struggles of the poor student in Paris, if
skilfully drawn, would furnish a most dramatic picture of modern
civilization.
Father Goriot |
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 Lysis by Plato: ours, for we shall not be benefited by them. Do you agree?
He assented.
And shall we be friends to others, and will any others love us, in as far
as we are useless to them?
Certainly not.
Neither can your father or mother love you, nor can anybody love anybody
else, in so far as they are useless to them?
No.
And therefore, my boy, if you are wise, all men will be your friends and
kindred, for you will be useful and good; but if you are not wise, neither
father, nor mother, nor kindred, nor any one else, will be your friends.
Lysis |
