| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lysis by Plato: towards Lysis, and the childlike and innocent friendship of the boys with
one another. Some difference appears to be intended between the characters
of the more talkative Menexenus and the reserved and simple Lysis.
Socrates draws out the latter by a new sort of irony, which is sometimes
adopted in talking to children, and consists in asking a leading question
which can only be answered in a sense contrary to the intention of the
question: 'Your father and mother of course allow you to drive the
chariot?' 'No they do not.' When Menexenus returns, the serious dialectic
begins. He is described as 'very pugnacious,' and we are thus prepared for
the part which a mere youth takes in a difficult argument. But Plato has
not forgotten dramatic propriety, and Socrates proposes at last to refer
Lysis |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane: tell me that you sized me up for a farmer?"
A laboring man marched along with bundles under his arms.
To her remarks, he replied: "It's a fine evenin', ain't it?"
She smiled squarely into the face of a boy who was hurrying by
with his hands buried in his overcoat, his blonde locks bobbing on
his youthful temples, and a cheery smile of unconcern upon his
lips. He turned his head and smiled back at her, waving his hands.
him. "He's all right! He didn't mean anything! Let it go!
He's a good fellah!"
"Din' he insul' me?" asked the man earnestly.
"No," said they. "Of course he didn't! He's all right!"
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia by Samuel Johnson: separation." "Have you then forgot the precepts," said Rasselas,
"which you so powerfully enforced? Has wisdom no strength to arm
the heart against calamity? Consider that external things are
naturally variable, but truth and reason are always the same."
"What comfort," said the mourner, "can truth and reason afford me?
Of what effect are they now, but to tell me that my daughter will
not be restored?"
The Prince, whose humanity would not suffer him to insult misery
with reproof, went away, convinced of the emptiness of rhetorical
sounds, and the inefficacy of polished periods and studied
sentences.
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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 Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy: be? Go and fetch the food." Maslova obeyed and went where she was
sent; but, catching the eye of the bandaged boy who was not
allowed to laugh, she again burst out laughing.
Whenever she was alone Maslova again and again pulled the
photograph partly out of the envelope and looked at it
admiringly; but only in the evening when she was off duty and
alone in the bedroom which she shared with a nurse, did she take
it quite out of the envelope and gaze long at the faded yellow
photograph, caressing with, her eyes every detail of faces and
clothing, the steps of the veranda, and the bushes which served
as a background to his and hers and his aunts' faces, and could
Resurrection |
