| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn: him? -- of what wrong was he guilty?... At Akanuma we were so happy
together,-- and you killed him!... What harm did he ever do you? Do you
even know what you have done? -- oh! do you know what a cruel, what a
wicked thing you have done?... Me too you have killed,-- for I will not
live without my husband!... Only to tell you this I came."... Then again
she wept aloud,-- so bitterly that the voice of her crying pierced into the
marrow of the listener's bones; -- and she sobbed out the words of this
poem:--
Hi kurureba
Sasoeshi mono wo --
Akanuma no
Kwaidan |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Eryxias by Platonic Imitator: by hearing and we use the sense of hearing in giving instruction?
CRITIAS: Yes.
SOCRATES: And since medicine frees the sick man from his disease, that art
too may sometimes appear useful in the acquisition of virtue, e.g. when
hearing is procured by the aid of medicine.
CRITIAS: Very likely.
SOCRATES: But if, again, we obtain by wealth the aid of medicine, shall we
not regard wealth as useful for virtue?
CRITIAS: True.
SOCRATES: And also the instruments by which wealth is procured?
CRITIAS: Certainly.
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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 Royalty Restored/London Under Charles II by J. Fitzgerald Molloy: recording: "The mention of my wife's arrival," said he, in the
pleasant familiar tone it was his wont to use, "puts me in mind
to desire you to put that compliment upon her, that her entrance
into this town may be made with more decency than the ways will
now suffer it to be; and to that purpose I pray you would quickly
pass such laws as are before you, in order to the mending those
ways, that she may not find Whitehall surrounded with water."
At nine o'clock on the night of the 19th of May, his majesty left
London in Lord Northumberland's carriage, on his way to
Portsmouth. Arriving at Kingston an hour later, he entered Lord
Chesterfield's coach, which awaited him there by appointment, and
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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 Chouans by Honore de Balzac: "Is he at your house?" he asked, in a tone which showed his amazement.
"Not yet," she replied; "but give me a safe man and I will send him to
you when the marquis comes."
"That's a mistake," said Corentin; "a soldier will alarm him, but a
boy, and I can find one, will not."
"Commandant," said Mademoiselle de Verneuil, "thanks to this fog which
you are cursing, you can surround my house. Put soldiers everywhere.
Place a guard in the church to command the esplanade on which the
windows of my salon open. Post men on the Promenade; for though the
windows of my bedroom are twenty feet above the ground, despair does
sometimes give a man the power to jump even greater distances safely.
The Chouans |
