| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen: end.
The Councillor saw quite distinctly before him a lantern burning, and behind
this a large handsome house. All seemed to him in proper order as usual; it
was East Street, splendid and elegant as we now see it. He lay with his feet
towards a doorway, and exactly opposite sat the watchman asleep.
"Gracious Heaven!" said he. "Have I lain here in the street and dreamed? Yes;
'tis East Street! How splendid and light it is! But really it is terrible
what an effect that one glass of punch must have had on me!"
Two minutes later, he was sitting in a hackney-coach and driving to
Frederickshafen. He thought of the distress and agony he had endured, and
praised from the very bottom of his heart the happy reality--our own
Fairy Tales |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Black Beauty by Anna Sewell: for her, for had she not heard me outside she would never have had courage
to come out.
There was much confusion in the yard; the horses being got out
of other stables, and the carriages and gigs being pulled out
of houses and sheds, lest the flames should spread further.
On the other side the yard windows were thrown up, and people were shouting
all sorts of things; but I kept my eye fixed on the stable door,
where the smoke poured out thicker than ever, and I could see flashes
of red light; presently I heard above all the stir and din a loud,
clear voice, which I knew was master's:
"James Howard! James Howard! Are you there?" There was no answer,
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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 Madam How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley: vanishes suddenly through chasms under water, sucking the fish
down with it; and after a certain time boils suddenly up again
from the depths, bringing back with it the fish, who have been
swimming comfortably all the time in a subterranean lake; and
bringing back, too (and, extraordinary as this story is, there is
good reason to believe it true), live wild ducks who went down
small and unfledged, and come back full-grown and fat, with water-
weeds and small fish in their stomachs, showing they have had
plenty to feed on underground. But--and this is the strangest
part of the story, if true--they come up unfledged just as they
went down, and are moreover blind from having been so long in
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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 Lysis by Plato: May we then infer that the good is the friend?
I think so.
And the good is loved for the sake of the evil? Let me put the case in
this way: Suppose that of the three principles, good, evil, and that which
is neither good nor evil, there remained only the good and the neutral, and
that evil went far away, and in no way affected soul or body, nor ever at
all that class of things which, as we say, are neither good nor evil in
themselves;--would the good be of any use, or other than useless to us?
For if there were nothing to hurt us any longer, we should have no need of
anything that would do us good. Then would be clearly seen that we did but
love and desire the good because of the evil, and as the remedy of the
Lysis |
