| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: hath the heart to make and end; so they devour and minish
my house; and ere long will they make havoc likewise of
myself. Howbeit these things surely lie on the knees of the
gods. Nay, father, but do thou go with haste and tell the
constant Penelope that she hath got me safe and that I am
come up out of Pylos. As for me, I will tarry here, and do
thou return hither when thou hast told the tidings to her
alone; but of the other Achaeans let no man learn it, for
there be many that devise mischief against me.'
Then didst thou make answer, swineherd Eumaeus: 'I mark, I
heed, all this thou speakest to one with understanding. But
The Odyssey |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The People That Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs: Mountains of Arizona and thought them quite the largest and
most formidable of big game; but from the appearance of the
head of this awful creature I judged that the largest grizzly I
had ever seen would shrink by comparison to the dimensions of a
Newfoundland dog.
Our fire was just within the cave, the smoke rising through the
apertures between the rocks that I had piled in such a way that
they arched inward toward the cliff at the top. The opening by
means of which we were to reach the outside was barricaded with
a few large fragments which did not by any means close it
entirely; but through the apertures thus left no large animal
The People That Time Forgot |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Proposed Roads To Freedom by Bertrand Russell: power of the State needs, therefore, to be very closely
scrutinized, and every possibility of diminishing its
power is to be welcomed provided it does not lead to
a reign of private tyranny.
The power of the State is partly legal, partly
economic: acts of a kind which the State dislikes can
be punished by the criminal law, and individuals who
incur the displeasure of the State may find it hard
to earn a livelihood.
The views of Marx on the State are not very
clear. On the one hand he seems willing,, like the
|
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 Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: three tiers, crowned with three churches, and surrounded with huge
ricks and barns. "Yes," thought Chichikov to himself, "one can see
what a jewel of a landowner lives here." The huts in question were
stoutly built and the intervening alleys well laid-out; while,
wherever a waggon was visible, it looked serviceable and more or less
new. Also, the local peasants bore an intelligent look on their faces,
the cattle were of the best possible breed, and even the peasants'
pigs belonged to the porcine aristocracy. Clearly there dwelt here
peasants who, to quote the song, were accustomed to "pick up silver by
the shovelful." Nor were Englishified gardens and parterres and other
conceits in evidence, but, on the contrary, there ran an open view
Dead Souls |
