| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Charmides by Plato: others, to have had the privilege of understanding him (Sir Joshua
Reynolds' Lectures: Disc. xv.).
There are fundamental differences in Greek and English, of which some may
be managed while others remain intractable. (1). The structure of the
Greek language is partly adversative and alternative, and partly
inferential; that is to say, the members of a sentence are either opposed
to one another, or one of them expresses the cause or effect or condition
or reason of another. The two tendencies may be called the horizontal and
perpendicular lines of the language; and the opposition or inference is
often much more one of words than of ideas. But modern languages have
rubbed off this adversative and inferential form: they have fewer links of
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Shadow Line by Joseph Conrad: job. The Chief Steward, who had been leaning
against the wall, brought his face of an unhappy
goat nearer to the table and addressed us dole-
fully. His object was to unburden himself of his
eternal grievance against Hamilton. The man
kept him in hot water with the Harbour Office as
to the state of his accounts. He wished to good-
ness he would get my job, though in truth what
would it be? Temporary relief at best.
I said: "You needn't worry. He won't get my
job. My successor is on board already."
The Shadow Line |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from My Antonia by Willa Cather: Cuzak gave me a twinkling, sidelong glance. `The lawyers,
they got a good deal of it, sure,' he said merrily.
A hundred thousand dollars; so that was the fortune that had been
scraped together by such hard dealing, and that Cutter himself
had died for in the end!
After supper Cuzak and I took a stroll in the orchard and sat
down by the windmill to smoke. He told me his story as if it
were my business to know it.
His father was a shoemaker, his uncle a furrier, and he,
being a younger son, was apprenticed to the latter's trade.
You never got anywhere working for your relatives, he said,
My Antonia |
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 Seraphita by Honore de Balzac: diverse shades of that flower of the celestial gardens. Behold the
beings who lack intelligence, those who begin to receive it, those who
have passed through trials, those who love, those who follow wisdom
and aspire to the regions of Light!
"Canst thou comprehend, through this thought made visible, the destiny
of humanity?--whence it came, whither to goeth? Continue steadfast in
the Path. Reaching the end of thy journey thou shalt hear the clarions
of omnipotence sounding the cries of victory in chords of which a
single one would shake the earth, but which are lost in the spaces of
a world that hath neither east nor west.
"Canst thou comprehend, my poor beloved Tried-one, that unless the
Seraphita |
