| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Works of Samuel Johnson by Samuel Johnson: every place and action will recall it to the mind,
and fresh remembrance of vexation must still enkindle
rage, and irritate revenge.
A wise man will make haste to forgive, because
he knows the true value of time, and will not suffer
it to pass away in unnecessary pain. He that
willingly suffers the corrosions of inveterate hatred, and
gives up his days and nights to the gloom of malice,
and perturbations of stratagem, cannot surely be
said to consult his ease. Resentment is an union of
sorrow with malignity, a combination of a passion
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Hellenica by Xenophon: and then the battle, and death of Cyrus himself, and the consequent
retreat of the Hellenes while effecting their escape to the sea.[4]
[3] Lit. "as to how then Cyrus collected an army and with it went up
against his brother, and how the battle was fought and how he
died, and how in the sequal the Hellenes escaped to the sea (all
this), is written by (or 'for,' or 'in honour of') Themistogenes
the Syracusan." My impression is that Xenophon's "Anabasis," or a
portion of the work so named, was edited originally by
Themistogenes. See "Philol. Museum," vol. i. p. 489; L. Dindorf,
{Xen. Ell.}, Ox. MDCCCLIII., node ad loc. {Themistogenei}. Cf.
Diod. Sic. xiv. 19-31, 37, after Ephorus and Theopompus probably.
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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 Thus Spake Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche: the Superman may hereafter live. Thus seeketh he his own down-going.
I love him who laboureth and inventeth, that he may build the house for the
Superman, and prepare for him earth, animal, and plant: for thus seeketh
he his own down-going.
I love him who loveth his virtue: for virtue is the will to down-going,
and an arrow of longing.
I love him who reserveth no share of spirit for himself, but wanteth to be
wholly the spirit of his virtue: thus walketh he as spirit over the
bridge.
I love him who maketh his virtue his inclination and destiny: thus, for
the sake of his virtue, he is willing to live on, or live no more.
Thus Spake Zarathustra |
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 Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy: attached.
But such a reminder was unnecessary to-night. Having tossed till
about five o'clock, Marty heard the sparrows walking down their
long holes in the thatch above her sloping ceiling to their
orifice at the eaves; whereupon she also arose, and descended to
the ground-floor again.
It was still dark, but she began moving about the house in those
automatic initiatory acts and touches which represent among
housewives the installation of another day. While thus engaged
she heard the rumbling of Mr. Melbury's wagons, and knew that
there, too, the day's toil had begun.
The Woodlanders |
