| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Crowd by Gustave le Bon: Such is the psychology of electoral crowds. It is identical with
that of other crowds: neither better nor worse.
In consequence I draw no conclusion against universal suffrage
from what precedes. Had I to settle its fate, I should preserve
it as it is for practical reasons, which are to be deduced in
point of fact from our investigation of the psychology of crowds.
On this account I shall proceed to set them forth.
No doubt the weak side of universal suffrage is too obvious to be
overlooked. It cannot be gainsaid that civilisation has been the
work of a small minority of superior intelligences constituting
the culminating point of a pyramid, whose stages, widening in
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Catriona by Robert Louis Stevenson: carried me away in private to her father's library. I should not fail
to say she was dressed to the nines, and appeared extraordinary
handsome.
"Now, Mr. David, sit ye down here and let us have a two-handed crack,"
said she. "For I have much to tell you, and it appears besides that I
have been grossly unjust to your good taste."
"In what manner, Mistress Grant?" I asked. "I trust I have never
seemed to fail in due respect."
"I will be your surety, Mr, David," said she. "Your respect, whether
to yourself or your poor neighbours, has been always and most
fortunately beyond imitation. But that is by the question. You got a
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