| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers by Jonathan Swift: the printed account of his death, in a letter to a lord; and
whether he is since revived I leave the world to judge. This
indeed is perfect cavilling, and I am ashamed to dwell any longer
upon it.
Fourthly, I will appeal to Mr. Partridge himself, whether it be
probable I could have been so indiscreet, to begin my predictions
with the only falsehood that ever was pretended to be in them;
and this in an affair at home, where I had so many opportunities
to be exact; and must have given such advantages against me to a
person of Mr. Partridge's wit and learning, who, if he could
possibly have raised one single objection more against the truth
|
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 Of The Nature of Things by Lucretius: What honoured sage, Democritus, lays down-
That proposition, that primordials
Of body and mind, each super-posed on each,
Vary alternately and interweave
The fabric of our members. For not only
Are the soul-elements smaller far than those
Which this our body and inward parts compose,
But also are they in their number less,
And scattered sparsely through our frame. And thus
This canst thou guarantee: soul's primal germs
Maintain between them intervals as large
Of The Nature of Things |
