| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx: by new industries, whose introduction becomes a life and death
question for all civilised nations, by industries that no longer
work up indigenous raw material, but raw material drawn from the
remotest zones; industries whose products are consumed, not only
at home, but in every quarter of the globe. In place of the old
wants, satisfied by the productions of the country, we find new
wants, requiring for their satisfaction the products of distant
lands and climes. In place of the old local and national
seclusion and self-sufficiency, we have intercourse in every
direction, universal inter-dependence of nations. And as in
material, so also in intellectual production. The intellectual
The Communist Manifesto |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Alcibiades II by Platonic Imitator: which are probably of Pythagorean origin, is unknown. They are found also
in the Anthology (Anth. Pal.).)
In my opinion, I say, the poet spoke both well and prudently; but if you
have anything to say in answer to him, speak out.
ALCIBIADES: It is difficult, Socrates, to oppose what has been well said.
And I perceive how many are the ills of which ignorance is the cause,
since, as would appear, through ignorance we not only do, but what is
worse, pray for the greatest evils. No man would imagine that he would do
so; he would rather suppose that he was quite capable of praying for what
was best: to call down evils seems more like a curse than a prayer.
SOCRATES: But perhaps, my good friend, some one who is wiser than either
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Book of Remarkable Criminals by H. B. Irving: mould of the instinctive murderer. Castaing is a man of
sensibility, capable of domestic affection; Holmes completely
insensible to all feelings of humanity. Taking life is a mere
incident in the accomplishment of his schemes; men, women and
children are sacrificed with equal mercilessness to the necessary
end. A consummate liar and hypocrite, he has that strange power
of fascination over others, women in particular, which is often
independent altogether of moral or even physical attractiveness.
We are accustomed to look for a certain vastness, grandeur of
scale in the achievements of America. A study of American crime
will show that it does not disappoint us in this expectation.
A Book of Remarkable Criminals |
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 Second Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling: used to be our custom, but each tribe drew off by itself--the
pig with the pig, the deer with the deer; horn to horn, hoof to
hoof,--like keeping to like, and so lay shaking in the Jungle.
"Only the First of the Tigers was not with us, for he was still
hidden in the marshes of the North, and when word was brought
to him of the Thing we had seen in the cave, he said. 'I will
go to this Thing and break his neck.' So he ran all the night
till he came to the cave; but the trees and the creepers on his
path, remembering the order that Tha had given, let down their
branches and marked him as he ran, drawing their fingers across
his back, his flank, his forehead, and his jowl. Wherever they
The Second Jungle Book |
