| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Schoolmistress and Other Stories by Anton Chekhov: number of the passengers were standing or walking near a
second-class compartment, and that they looked as though some
celebrated person were in that compartment. Among the curious
whom I met near this compartment I saw, however, an artillery
officer who had been my fellow-traveler, an intelligent, cordial,
and sympathetic fellow--as people mostly are whom we meet on our
travels by chance and with whom we are not long acquainted.
"What are you looking at there?" I asked.
He made no answer, but only indicated with his eyes a feminine
figure. It was a young girl of seventeen or eighteen, wearing a
Russian dress, with her head bare and a little shawl flung
The Schoolmistress and Other Stories |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Dark Lady of the Sonnets by George Bernard Shaw: I lay stress on this irony of Shakespear's, this impish rejoicing in
pessimism, this exultation in what breaks the hearts of common men,
not only because it is diagnostic of that immense energy of life which
we call genius, but because its omission is the one glaring defect in
Mr Harris's otherwise extraordinarily penetrating book. Fortunately,
it is an omission that does not disable the book as (in my judgment)
it disabled the hero of the play, because Mr Harris left himself out
of his play, whereas he pervades his book, mordant, deep-voiced, and
with an unconquerable style which is the man.
The Idol of the Bardolaters
There is even an advantage in having a book on Shakespear with 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 A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay: Maskull walked slowly along the creek bank till he came to the bend.
The glorious sunshine, and the sparkling, brilliant sea then met his
eyes again; and all melancholy was swept out of his mind. He
continued as far as the seashore, and issuing out of the shadows of
the forest, strolled on to the sands, and sat down in the full
sunlight. The radiance of Alppain had long since disappeared. He
drank in the hot, invigorating wind, listened to the hissing waves,
and stared over the coloured sea with its pinnacles and currents, at
Swaylone's Island.
"What music can that be, which tears a wife and mother away from all
she loves the most?" he meditated. "It sounds unholy. Will it tell
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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 Russia in 1919 by Arthur Ransome: He regarded the League of Nations as a sort of capitalist
syndicate, and said that the difference in the French and
American attitude towards the League depended upon
the position of French and American capital. Capital in
France was so weak, that she could at best be only a small
shareholder. Capital in America was in a very advantageous
position. America therefore wanted a huge All-European
syndicate in which each state would have a certain number
of shares. America, having the greatest number of shares,
would be able to exploit all the other nations. This is a fixed
idea of Bucharin's, and he has lost no opportunity of putting
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