| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The New Machiavelli by H. G. Wells: lighted carriage windows gliding southward. . . .
Suddenly I began to realise just what it was we were doing.
And now, indeed, I knew what London had been to me, London where I
had been born and educated, the slovenly mother of my mind and all
my ambitions, London and the empire! It seemed to me we must be
going out to a world that was utterly empty. All our significance
fell from us--and before us was no meaning any more. We were
leaving London; my hand, which had gripped so hungrily upon its
complex life, had been forced from it, my fingers left their hold.
That was over. I should never have a voice in public affairs again.
The inexorable unwritten law which forbids overt scandal sentenced
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Blue Flower by Henry van Dyke: horses and rushed together, tracing, rasing, and foining.
Such strokes they gave that great pieces were clipped away
from their hauberks, and their helms, and they staggered to
and fro like drunken men. Then they hurtled together like
rams and each battered other the wind out of his body. So
they sat either on one side of the bridge, to take their
breath, glaring the one at the other as two owls. Then they
stepped together and fought freshly, smiting and thrusting,
ramping and reeling, panting, snorting, and scattering blood, for
the space of two hours. So the knight in black and yellow,
because he was heavier, drave Martimor backward step by step till
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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 Ion by Plato: when horses were well or ill managed. But suppose I were to ask you: By
the help of which art, Ion, do you know whether horses are well managed, by
your skill as a horseman or as a performer on the lyre--what would you
answer?
ION: I should reply, by my skill as a horseman.
SOCRATES: And if you judged of performers on the lyre, you would admit
that you judged of them as a performer on the lyre, and not as a horseman?
ION: Yes.
SOCRATES: And in judging of the general's art, do you judge of it as a
general or a rhapsode?
ION: To me there appears to be no difference between them.
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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 Beauty and The Beast by Bayard Taylor: women, acquiescence in their rights, and invitations to them,
everywhere, to take part in the Democratic caucuses and
conventions. Most of the prominent women of the State were deluded
for a time by this manifestation, and acted with the party for the
sake of the sex.
I had no idea, however, what the practical result of this movement
would be, until, a few weeks before election, I was calling upon
Mrs. Buckwalter, and happened to express my belief that we
Republicans were going to carry the State again, by a large
majority.
"I am very glad of it," said she, with an expression of great
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