| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Records of a Family of Engineers by Robert Louis Stevenson: and finished the sea-tower. No subsequent builder has
departed in anything essential from the principles of their
design. It remains, and it seems to us as though it must
remain for ever, an ideal attained. Every stone in the
building, it may interest the reader to know, my grandfather
had himself cut out in the model; and the manner in which the
courses were fitted, joggled, trenailed, wedged, and the bond
broken, is intricate as a puzzle and beautiful by ingenuity.
In 1806 a second Bill passed both Houses, and the
preliminary works were at once begun. The same year the Navy
had taken a great harvest of prizes in the North Sea, one of
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Off on a Comet by Jules Verne: circumnavigation of the globe. Count Timascheff was himself no sailor,
but had the greatest confidence in leaving the command of his yacht
in the hands of Lieutenant Procope, a man of about thirty years of age,
and an excellent seaman. Born on the count's estates, the son
of a serf who had been emancipated long before the famous edict
of the Emperor Alexander, Procope was sincerely attached, by a tie
of gratitude as well as of duty and affection, to his patron's service.
After an apprenticeship on a merchant ship he had entered
the imperial navy, and had already reached the rank of lieutenant
when the count appointed him to the charge of his own private yacht,
in which he was accustomed to spend by far the greater part of his time,
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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 United States Bill of Rights: Passed by Congress September 25, 1789
Ratified December 15, 1791
I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech,
or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble,
and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
II
A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State,
the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
III
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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 War and the Future by H. G. Wells: comfortably to bed.
IV. NEW ARMS FOR OLD ONES
1
Such are the landscapes and method of modern war. It is more
difficult in its nature from war as it was waged in the
nineteenth century than that was from the nature of the phalanx
or the legion. The nucleus fact--when I talked to General Joffre
he was very insistent upon this point--is still as ever the
ordinary fighting man, but all the accessories and conditions of
his personal encounter with the fighting man of the other side
have been revolutionised in a quarter of a century. The fighting
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