| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad: A grand piano stood massively in a corner; with dark gleams
on the flat surfaces like a sombre and polished sarcophagus.
A high door opened--closed. I rose.
"She came forward, all in black, with a pale head, floating towards
me in the dusk. She was in mourning. It was more than a year
since his death, more than a year since the news came;
she seemed as though she would remember and mourn forever.
She took both my hands in hers and murmured, `I had heard you
were coming.' I noticed she was not very young--I mean not girlish.
She had a mature capacity for fidelity, for belief, for suffering.
The room seemed to have grown darker, as if all the sad light
Heart of Darkness |
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 Memorabilia by Xenophon: [8] Or, "good and beautiful are convertible terms: whatever is good is
beautiful, or whatever is beautiful is good."
[9] Or, "in the same breath." Cf. Plat. "Hipp. maj." 295 D; "Gorg."
474 D.
[10] Or, "and this standard is the serviceableness of the thing in
question."
Aristip. Then I presume even a basket for carrying dung[11] is a
beautiful thing?
[11] Cf. Plat. "Hipp. maj." 288 D, 290 D; and Grote's note, loc. cit.
p. 381: "in regard to the question wherein consists {to kalon}?"
Soc. To be sure, and a spear of gold an ugly thing, if for their
The Memorabilia |
