| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Lesson of the Master by Henry James: him downstairs; upon which, descending, he followed his conductor
through a long passage to an apartment thrown out, in the rear of
the habitation, for the special requirements, as he guessed, of a
busy man of letters.
St. George was in his shirt-sleeves in the middle of a large high
room - a room without windows, but with a wide skylight at the top,
that of a place of exhibition. It was furnished as a library, and
the serried bookshelves rose to the ceiling, a surface of
incomparable tone produced by dimly-gilt "backs" interrupted here
and there by the suspension of old prints and drawings. At the end
furthest from the door of admission was a tall desk, of great
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu by Sax Rohmer: with filth a little Chinaman appeared, dressed in a loose smock,
black trousers and thick-soled slippers, and, advancing,
shook his head vigorously.
"No shavee--no shavee," he chattered, simian fashion,
squinting from one to the other of us with his twinkling eyes.
"Too late! Shuttee shop!"
"Don't you come none of it wi' me!" roared Smith, in a voice of amazing
gruffness, and shook an artificially dirtied fist under the Chinaman's nose.
"Get inside and gimme an' my mate a couple o' pipes. Smokee pipe,
you yellow scum--savvy?"
My friend bent forward and glared into the other's eyes with a vindictiveness
The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Golden Sayings of Epictetus by Epictetus: subjected to examination.
XLVIII
This is the reason why Socrates, when reminded that he
should prepare for his trial, answered: "Thinkest thou not that I
have been preparing for it all my life?"
"In what way?"
"I have maintained that which in me lay/"
"How so?"
"I have never, secretly or openly, done a wrong unto any."
XLIX
In what character dost thou now come forward?
The Golden Sayings of Epictetus |
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 Apology by Xenophon: those whom he will of what is about to be. That is a thing which all
the world believes and asserts even as I do. Only, when they describe
these premonitions under the name of birds and utterances, tokens[24]
and soothsayers, I speak of a divinity, and in using that designation
I claim to speak at once more exactly and more reverentially than they
do who ascribe the power of the gods to birds. And that I am not lying
against the Godhead I have this as a proof: although I have reported
to numbers of friends the counsels of heaven, I have never at any time
been shown to be a deceiver or deceived."
[20] Cf. "Mem." I. i. 2.
[21] Cf. Plat. "Apol." 19.
The Apology |
