| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Sportsman by Xenophon: [8] "Fortune favours the brave," reading {to eutukhesai} (L. D.); or
if {tou eutukhesai}, (vulg.) "those whose health of soul and body
is established are ipso facto nigh unto good fortune."
It was through knowledge that they owed success against their foes to
such a training, that our own forefathers paid so careful a heed to
the young.[9] Though they had but a scant supply of fruits, it was an
immemorial custom "not to hinder[10] the hunter from hunting any of
earth's offspring"; and in addition, "not to hunt by night[11] within
many furlongs of the city," in order that the adepts in that art might
not rob the young lads of their game. They saw plainly that among the
many pleasures to which youth is prone, this one alone is productive
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Seraphita by Honore de Balzac: their details. A man whose scientific eminence is incontestable, and
who united in his own person powers of conception, will, and
imagination, would surely have invented better if he had invented at
all. The fantastic literature of the East offers nothing that can give
an idea of this astounding work, full of the essence of poetry, if it
is permissible to compare a work of faith with one of oriental fancy.
The transportation of Swedenborg by the Angel who served as guide to
this first journey is told with a sublimity which exceeds, by the
distance which God has placed betwixt the earth and the sun, the great
epics of Klopstock, Milton, Tasso, and Dante. This description, which
serves in fact as an introduction to his work on the Astral Regions,
Seraphita |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens: out.
'And how far is the Maypole from here?'
'About a mile'--John was going to add that it was the easiest mile
in all the world, when the third rider, who had hitherto kept a
little in the rear, suddenly interposed:
'And have you one excellent bed, landlord? Hem! A bed that you
can recommend--a bed that you are sure is well aired--a bed that
has been slept in by some perfectly respectable and unexceptionable
person?'
'We don't take in no tagrag and bobtail at our house, sir,'
answered John. 'And as to the bed itself--'
Barnaby Rudge |
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 Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: hundred yards to the place; and the other was up a ladder at twice,
as I have already described it; and they had also a large wood,
thickly planted, on the top of the hill, containing above an acre,
which grew apace, and concealed the place from all discovery there,
with only one narrow place between two trees, not easily to be
discovered, to enter on that side.
The other colony was that of Will Atkins, where there were four
families of Englishmen, I mean those I had left there, with their
wives and children; three savages that were slaves, the widow and
children of the Englishman that was killed, the young man and the
maid, and, by the way, we made a wife of her before we went away.
Robinson Crusoe |
