| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Eryxias by Platonic Imitator: CRITIAS: I do not think so.
SOCRATES: Then you consider that a man never wants any of these things for
the use of the body?
CRITIAS: Certainly not.
SOCRATES: And if they appear useless to this end, ought they not always to
appear useless? For we have already laid down the principle that things
cannot be at one time useful and at another time not, in the same process.
CRITIAS: But in that respect your argument and mine are the same. For you
maintain if they are useful to a certain end, they can never become
useless; whereas I say that in order to accomplish some results bad things
are needed, and good for others.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Menexenus by Plato: own friends with their valour, and their death they gave in exchange for
the salvation of the living. And I think that we should praise them in the
order in which nature made them good, for they were good because they were
sprung from good fathers. Wherefore let us first of all praise the
goodness of their birth; secondly, their nurture and education; and then
let us set forth how noble their actions were, and how worthy of the
education which they had received.
And first as to their birth. Their ancestors were not strangers, nor are
these their descendants sojourners only, whose fathers have come from
another country; but they are the children of the soil, dwelling and living
in their own land. And the country which brought them up is not like other
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy: the aged limes. But finding this place rather dull she returned
to the streets, and watched the carriages drawing up for the concert,
numerous dons and their wives, and undergraduates with gay female companions,
crowding up likewise. When the doors were closed, and the concert began,
she moved on.
The powerful notes of that concert rolled forth through the swinging
yellow blinds of the open windows, over the housetops, and into the still
air of the lanes. They reached so far as to the room in which Jude lay;
and it was about this time that his cough began again and awakened him.
As soon as he could speak he murmured, his eyes still closed:
"A little water, please."
Jude the Obscure |
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 Mayflower Compact: the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country,
a Voyage to plant the first colony in the Northerne Parts
of Virginia; doe, by these Presents, solemnly and mutually
in the Presence of God and one of another, covenant and
combine ourselves together into a civill Body Politick,
for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance
of the Ends aforesaid; And by Virtue hereof do enact,
constitute, and frame, such just and equall Laws, Ordinances,
Acts, Constitutions, and Offices, from time to time,
as shall be thought most meete and convenient for the
Generall Good of the Colonie; unto which we promise
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