| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Essays of Francis Bacon by Francis Bacon: magnifying of man or matter, doth irritate con-
tradiction, and procure envy and scorn. To praise
a man's self, cannot be decent, except it be in rare
cases; but to praise a man's office or profession, he
may do it with good grace, and with a kind of mag-
nanimity. The cardinals of Rome, which are theo-
logues, and friars, and Schoolmen, have a phrase
of notable contempt and scorn towards civil busi-
ness: for they call all temporal business of wars,
embassages, judicature, and other employments,
sbirrerie, which is under-sheriffries; as if they
Essays of Francis Bacon |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Meno by Plato: Daedalus (Compare Euthyphro); but perhaps you have not got them in your
country?
MENO: What have they to do with the question?
SOCRATES: Because they require to be fastened in order to keep them, and
if they are not fastened they will play truant and run away.
MENO: Well, what of that?
SOCRATES: I mean to say that they are not very valuable possessions if
they are at liberty, for they will walk off like runaway slaves; but when
fastened, they are of great value, for they are really beautiful works of
art. Now this is an illustration of the nature of true opinions: while
they abide with us they are beautiful and fruitful, but they run away out
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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 Dreams & Dust by Don Marquis: For dull Endymions?
Which hundred moons hang tranced above
Audacious Ajalons?
What Holy Grail lures errants pale
Through the wastes of yonder star?
What fables sway the Milky Way?
In Mars, what avatar?
When morning skims with crimson wings
Across the meres of Mercury,
What dreaming Memnon wakes and sings
Of miracles on Mercury?
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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 Wife, et al by Anton Chekhov: his money and lottery tickets with the honey, so that no one
might get the benefit of it. While I was inspecting cattle at a
railway-station, a cattle-dealer fell under an engine and had his
leg cut off. We carried him into the waiting-room, the blood was
flowing -- it was a horrible thing -- and he kept asking them to
look for his leg and was very much worried about it; there were
twenty roubles in the boot on the leg that had been cut off, and
he was afraid they would be lost."
"That's a story from a different opera," said Burkin.
"After his wife's death," Ivan Ivanovitch went on, after thinking
for half a minute, "my brother began looking out for an estate
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