| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Memories and Portraits by Robert Louis Stevenson: would say pathetically: "HE WAS REAL PLEASED WI' IT AT FIRST, BUT
I THINK HE'S GOT A KIND O' TIRED O' IT NOW" - the son being then a
man of about forty. But I will let all these pass. "'Tis more
significant: he's dead." The earth, that he had digged so much in
his life, was dug out by another for himself; and the flowers that
he had tended drew their life still from him, but in a new and
nearer way. A bird flew about the open grave, as if it too wished
to honour the obsequies of one who had so often quoted Scripture in
favour of its kind. "Are not two sparrows sold for one farthing,
and yet not one of them falleth to the ground."
Yes, he is dead. But the kings did not rise in the place of death
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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 Symposium by Xenophon: Nic. Not I, indeed. Don't ask me to defend their wits.
It is plain (suggested Socrates), they do not know the underlying
meaning.[14] But you, Niceratus, have paid large sums of money to
Anaximander, and Stesimbrotus, and many others,[15] so that no single
point in all that costly lore is lost upon you.[16] But what (he
added, turning to Critobulus) do you most pride yourself upon?
[14] i.e. "they haven't the key (of knowledge) to the allegorical or
spiritual meaning of the sacred text." Cf. Plat. "Crat." 407;
"Ion," 534; "Rep." 378, 387; "Theaet." 180; "Prot." 316. See
Grote, "H. G." i. 564.
[15] See Aristot. "Rhet." iii. 11, 13. "Or we may describe Niceratus
The Symposium |
