| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Parmenides by Plato: The one is at rest since it is in itself, for being in one, and not passing
out of this, it is in the same, which is itself.
True.
And that which is ever in the same, must be ever at rest?
Certainly.
Well, and must not that, on the contrary, which is ever in other, never be
in the same; and if never in the same, never at rest, and if not at rest,
in motion?
True.
Then the one being always itself in itself and other, must always be both
at rest and in motion?
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Fisherman's Luck by Henry van Dyke: distributions of a Wisdom higher, and a Kindness greater, than our
own. And I suppose that their meaning is that we should learn, by
all the uncertainties of our life, even the smallest, how to be
brave and steady and temperate and hopeful, whatever comes, because
we believe that behind it all there lies a purpose of good, and over
it all there watches a providence of blessing.
In the school of life many branches of knowledge are taught. But
the only philosophy that amounts to anything, after all, is just the
secret of making friends with our luck.
THE THRILLING MOMENT
"In angling, as in all other recreations into which excitement
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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 The Mansion by Henry van Dyke: Wall Street and at Albany, consultations and committee meetings
in
the brownstone mansion.
For a share in all this business and its adjuncts John Weightman
had his son in training in one of the famous law firms of the
city;
for he held that banking itself is a simple affair, the only real
difficulties of finance are on its legal side. Meantime he
wished
the young man to meet and know the men with whom he would have to
deal
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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 Herbert West: Reanimator by H. P. Lovecraft: injected into the left arm an accurately measured amount of the
vital elixir, prepared during the afternoon with a greater care
than we had used since college days, when our feats were new and
groping. I cannot express the wild, breathless suspense with which
we waited for results on this first really fresh specimen -- the
first we could reasonably expect to open its lips in rational
speech, perhaps to tell of what it had seen beyond the unfathomable
abyss.
West was a materialist, believing in no soul and attributing
all the working of consciousness to bodily phenomena; consequently
he looked for no revelation of hideous secrets from gulfs and
Herbert West: Reanimator |
