| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens: slapping his pocket. 'Is money the word? Why, the streets have
been running money. Devil send that the sport's not over yet, for
these are jolly times; golden, rare, roaring, scrambling times.
Hallo, bully! Hallo! Hallo! Drink, bully, drink. Where are ye
there! Hallo!'
With such vociferations, and with a boisterous manner which bespoke
his perfect abandonment to the general licence and disorder, he
groped his way towards the shed, where Hugh and Barnaby were
sitting on the ground.
'Put it about!' he cried, handing his flask to Hugh. 'The kennels
run with wine and gold. Guineas and strong water flow from the
Barnaby Rudge |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Shadow Line by Joseph Conrad: However, I had nearly fought my way out. Out
to sea. The sea--which was pure, safe, and
friendly. Three days more.
That thought sustained and carried me on my
way back to the ship. In the saloon the doctor's
voice greeted me, and his large form followed his
voice, issuing out of the starboard spare cabin
where the ship's medicine chest was kept securely
lashed in the bed-place.
Finding that I was not on board he had gone in
there, he said, to inspect the supply of drugs,
The Shadow Line |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Rescue by Joseph Conrad: woman.
"I shall never, never find out," she whispered to herself.
She cast down her eyes in intolerable humiliation, in intolerable
desire, as though she had veiled her face. Not a sound reached
the loneliness of her thought. But when she raised her eyes again
Jorgenson was no longer standing before her.
For an instant she saw him all black in the brilliant and narrow
doorway, and the next moment he had vanished outside, as if
devoured by the hot blaze of light. The sun had risen on the
Shore of Refuge.
When Mrs. Travers came out on deck herself it was as it were with
The Rescue |
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 Pivot of Civilization by Margaret Sanger: Malthusianism so far as to admit that ``the accumulation of wealth at
one pole is...at the same time the accumulation of misery, agony of
toil, slavery, ignorance, brutality and mental degradation at the
opposite pole.'' Nevertheless, there is no indication that Marx
permitted himself to see that the proletariat accommodates its numbers
to the ``requirements of capital'' precisely by breeding a large,
docile, submissive and easily exploitable population.
Had the purpose of Marx been impartial and scientific, this trifling
difference might easily have been overcome and the dangers of reckless
breeding insisted upon. But beneath all this wordy pretension and
economic jargon, we detect another aim. That is the unconscious
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