| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Alexandria and her Schools by Charles Kingsley: centuries, the most enormous effects on the welfare of Europe, and made
life possible for millions who would otherwise have been pent within the
narrow bounds of Europe, to devour each other in the struggle for room
and bread.
But those Arabic translations of Greek authors were a fatal gift for
Egypt, and scarcely less fatal gift for Bagdad. In that Almagest of
Ptolemy, in that Organon of Aristotle, which the Crusaders are said to
have brought home, lay, rude and embryotic, the germs of that physical
science, that geographical knowledge which has opened to the European
the commerce and the colonisation of the globe. Within three hundred
years after his works reached Europe, Ptolemy had taught the Portuguese
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 1 by Alexis de Toqueville: is less powerful in America than in France.
Liberty Of The Press In The United States
The influence of the liberty of the press does not affect
political opinions alone, but it extends to all the opinions of
men, and it modifies customs as well as laws. In another part of
this work I shall attempt to determinate the degree of influence
which the liberty of the press has exercised upon civil society
in the United States, and to point out the direction which it has
given to the ideas, as well as the tone which it has imparted to
the character and the feelings, of the Anglo-Americans, but at
present I purpose simply to examine the effects produced by the
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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 Mansfield Park by Jane Austen: to surmising or soliciting anything more. Miss Crawford,
however, with renewed animation, soon went on--
"I am conscious of being far better reconciled to a country
residence than I had ever expected to be. I can even
suppose it pleasant to spend _half_ the year in the country,
under certain circumstances, very pleasant. An elegant,
moderate-sized house in the centre of family connexions;
continual engagements among them; commanding the first society
in the neighbourhood; looked up to, perhaps, as leading
it even more than those of larger fortune, and turning
from the cheerful round of such amusements to nothing
Mansfield Park |
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 Historical Lecturers and Essays by Charles Kingsley: inquisitors and theologians, possibly to Alva himself; for he has
dared to dissect human bodies; he has insulted the mediaevalists at
Paris, Padua, Bologna, Pisa, Venice, in open theatre; he has turned
the heads of all the young surgeons in Italy and France; he has
written a great book, with prints in it, designed, some say, by
Titian--they were actually done by another Netherlander, John of
Calcar, near Cleves--in which he has dared to prove that Galen's
anatomy was at fault throughout, and that he had been describing a
monkey's inside when he had pretended to be describing a man's; and
thus, by impudence and quackery, he has wormed himself--this
Netherlander, a heretic at heart, as all Netherlanders are, to God
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