| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Symposium by Plato: all other things human as well as divine, both loves ought to be noted as
far as may be, for they are both present.
The course of the seasons is also full of both these principles; and when,
as I was saying, the elements of hot and cold, moist and dry, attain the
harmonious love of one another and blend in temperance and harmony, they
bring to men, animals, and plants health and plenty, and do them no harm;
whereas the wanton love, getting the upper hand and affecting the seasons
of the year, is very destructive and injurious, being the source of
pestilence, and bringing many other kinds of diseases on animals and
plants; for hoar-frost and hail and blight spring from the excesses and
disorders of these elements of love, which to know in relation to the
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Psychology of Revolution by Gustave le Bon: despotisms but that exercised by themselves seem odious.
Not being able to avoid the natural inequalities, they deny them.
The second Declaration of Rights, that of 1793, affirms, contrary
to the evidence, that ``all men are equal by nature.''
It would seem that in many of the men of the Revolution
the ardent desire for equality merely concealed an intense need
of inequalities. Napoleon was obliged to re-establish titles of
nobility and decorations for their benefit. Having shown that it
was among the most rabid revolutionists that he found the most
docile instruments of domination, Taine continues:--
``Suddenly, through all their preaching of liberty and equality,
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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 Tono Bungay by H. G. Wells: the little clergyman trying to hold his hand and his attention,
and repeating over and over again:
"Mr. Ponderevo, Mr. Ponderevo, it is all right. It is all right.
Only Believe! 'Believe on me, and ye shall be saved'!"
Close at hand was the doctor with one of those cruel and idiotic
injection needles modern science puts in the hands of these
half-educated young men, keeping my uncle flickeringly alive for
no reason whatever. The religieuse hovered sleepily in the
background with an overdue and neglected dose. In addition, the
landlady had not only got up herself, but roused an aged crone of
a mother and a partially imbecile husband, and there was also a
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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 The Crisis in Russia by Arthur Ransome: the stage and announced that Radek, who had lately come back
after imprisonment in Germany for the cause of revolution, was going
to talk to them about the general state of affairs. I saw Radek
grin atthis forecast of his speech. I understood why, when he
began to speak. He led off by a direct and furious onslaught
on the railway workers in general, demanding work, work
and more work, telling them that as the Red Army had been
the vanguard of the revolution hitherto, and had starved and
fought and given lives to save those at home from Denikin
and Kolchak, so now it was the turn of the railway workers
on whose efforts not only the Red Army but also the whole
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