| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Ivanhoe by Walter Scott: that this thy scroll produce the sum therein nominated
and set down.---But what now, Isaac?
art dead? art stupefied? hath the payment of a
thousand crowns put thy daughter's peril out of
thy mind?''
The Jew started to his feet---``No, Diccon, no
---I will presently set forth.---Farewell, thou whom
I may not call good, and dare not and will not call
evil.''
Yet ere Isaac departed, the Outlaw Chief bestowed
on him this parting advice:---``Be liberal
Ivanhoe |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Protagoras by Plato: equivalent to saying that virtue cannot be taught. He is not satisfied
with the result, and would like to renew the enquiry with the help of
Protagoras in a different order, asking (1) What virtue is, and (2) Whether
virtue can be taught. Protagoras declines this offer, but commends
Socrates' earnestness and his style of discussion.
The Protagoras is often supposed to be full of difficulties. These are
partly imaginary and partly real. The imaginary ones are (1)
Chronological,--which were pointed out in ancient times by Athenaeus, and
are noticed by Schleiermacher and others, and relate to the impossibility
of all the persons in the Dialogue meeting at any one time, whether in the
year 425 B.C., or in any other. But Plato, like all writers of fiction,
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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 The Lock and Key Library by Julian Hawthorne, Ed.: loaf cut myself a hearty luncheon; and, as I did it, I saw a
testimony in every eye, not only of an honest welcome, but of a
welcome mixed with thanks that I had not seemed to doubt it.
Was it this, or tell me, Nature, what else it was that made this
morsel so sweet, and to what magic I owe it that the draught I took
of their flagon was so delicious with it that they remain upon my
palate to this hour?
If the supper was to my taste, the grace which followed it was much
more so.
When supper was over, the old man gave a knock upon the table with
the haft of his knife to bid them prepare for the dance. The
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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 Nada the Lily by H. Rider Haggard: was a man named Mopo, and he had a little daughter, and she was called
Nada--Oh! my father, my father, I know you now!"
"Ay, Nada, and I knew you from the first; through all your man's
wrappings I knew you after these many years."
So the Lily fell upon my neck and sobbed there, and I remember that I
also wept.
Now when she had sobbed her fill of joy, Umslopogaas brought Nada the
Lily mass to eat and mealie porridge. She ate the curdled milk, but
the porridge she would not eat, saying that she was too weary.
Then she told us all the tale of her wanderings since she had fled
away from the side of Umslopogaas at the stronghold of the Halakazi,
Nada the Lily |
