| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lesser Hippias by Plato: HIPPIAS: Certainly not, Socrates.
SOCRATES: Why, were not the voluntary liars only just now shown to be
better than the involuntary?
HIPPIAS: And how, Socrates, can those who intentionally err, and
voluntarily and designedly commit iniquities, be better than those who err
and do wrong involuntarily? Surely there is a great excuse to be made for
a man telling a falsehood, or doing an injury or any sort of harm to
another in ignorance. And the laws are obviously far more severe on those
who lie or do evil, voluntarily, than on those who do evil involuntarily.
SOCRATES: You see, Hippias, as I have already told you, how pertinacious I
am in asking questions of wise men. And I think that this is the only good
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett: when they was all hand worked. I change off to nettin' long
towards spring, and I piece up my trawls and lines and get my
fishin' stuff to rights. Lobster pots they require attention, but
I make 'em up in spring weather when it's warm there in the barn.
No; I ain't one o' them that likes to set an' do nothin'."
"You see the rugs, poor dear did them; she wa'n't very partial
to knittin'," old Elijah went on, after he had counted his
stitches. "Our rugs is beginnin' to show wear, but I can't master
none o' them womanish tricks. My sister, she tinkers 'em up. She
said last time she was here that she guessed they'd last my time."
"The old ones are always the prettiest," I said.
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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 Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner: me." The German looked up. "Yes," said Bonaparte, "I had money, I had
lands; I said to my wife: 'There is Africa, a struggling country; they
want capital; they want men of talent; they want men of ability to open up
that land. Let us go.'
"I bought eight thousand pounds' worth of machinery--winnowing, plowing,
reaping machines; I loaded a ship with them. Next steamer I came out--
wife, children, all. Got to the Cape. Where is the ship with the things?
Lost--gone to the bottom! And the box with the money? Lost--nothing
saved!
"My wife wrote to the Duke of Wellington's nephew; I didn't wish her to;
she did it without my knowledge.
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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 The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson: The large handsome face of Dr. Jekyll grew pale to the very
lips, and there came a blackness about his eyes. "I do not care
to hear more," said he. "This is a matter I thought we had agreed
to drop."
"What I heard was abominable," said Utterson.
"It can make no change. You do not understand my position,"
returned the doctor, with a certain incoherency of manner. "I am
painfully situated, Utterson; my position is a very strange--a
very strange one. It is one of those affairs that cannot be
mended by talking."
"Jekyll," said Utterson, "you know me: I am a man to be
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde |
