| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Tramp Abroad by Mark Twain: and along the fanciful railings of the shallow porch,
are elaborate carvings--wreaths, fruits, arabesques,
verses from Scripture, names, dates, etc. The building
is wholly of wood, reddish brown in tint, a very
pleasing color. It generally has vines climbing over it.
Set such a house against the fresh green of the hillside,
and it looks ever so cozy and inviting and picturesque,
and is a decidedly graceful addition to the landscape.
One does not find out what a hold the chalet has taken
upon him, until he presently comes upon a new house--
a house which is aping the town fashions of Germany
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from War and the Future by H. G. Wells: flowing through the general mind. Which current is likely to
seize upon and carry human affairs with it, is not for our
present speculation.
There seem to be two distinct ways of answering the first of the
questions I have noted. They do not necessarily contradict each
other. Of course the war is being largely paid for immediately
out of the accumulated private wealth of the past. We are buying
off the "hold-up" of the private owner upon the material and
resources we need, and paying in paper money and war loans. This
is not in itself an impoverishment of the community. The wealth
of individuals is not the wealth of nations; the two things may
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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 The Battle of the Books by Jonathan Swift: corner. For anything else of genuine that the Moderns may pretend
to, I cannot recollect; unless it be a large vein of wrangling and
satire, much of a nature and substance with the spiders' poison;
which, however they pretend to spit wholly out of themselves, is
improved by the same arts, by feeding upon the insects and vermin
of the age. As for us, the Ancients, we are content with the bee,
to pretend to nothing of our own beyond our wings and our voice:
that is to say, our flights and our language. For the rest,
whatever we have got has been by infinite labour and search, and
ranging through every corner of nature; the difference is, that,
instead of dirt and poison, we have rather chosen to till our hives
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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 At the Earth's Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs: to imagine that we converse at all. It is thus that we
reason in relation to the brutes of our own world.
They know that the Sagoths have a spoken language,
but they cannot comprehend it, or how it manifests itself,
since they have no auditory apparatus. They believe
that the motions of the lips alone convey the meaning.
That the Sagoths can communicate with us is incomprehensible
to them.
"Yes, David," he concluded, "it would entail murder
to carry out your plan."
"Very well then, Perry." I replied. "I shall become
At the Earth's Core |
