| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Crowd by Gustave le Bon: individuals most clearly innocent, and, contrary to their
interests, to renounce their inviolability and to decimate
themselves.
It is not only by his acts that the individual in a crowd differs
essentially from himself. Even before he has entirely lost his
independence, his ideas and feelings have undergone a
transformation, and the transformation is so profound as to
change the miser into a spendthrift, the sceptic into a believer,
the honest man into a criminal, and the coward into a hero. The
renunciation of all its privileges which the nobility voted in a
moment of enthusiasm during the celebrated night of August 4,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: certain people in the world,--the power of drawing attention
without courting it, the faculty of exciting interest by their very
presence and way of doing things.
The most fascinating part of a city or town is that through which
the water flows. Idlers always choose a bridge for their place of
meditation when they can get it; and, failing that, you will find
them sitting on the edge of a quay or embankment, with their feet
hanging over the water. What a piquant mingling of indolence and
vivacity you can enjoy by the river-side! The best point of view
in Rome, to my taste, is the Ponte San Angelo; and in Florence or
Pisa I never tire of loafing along the Lung' Arno. You do not know
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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 Walking by Henry David Thoreau: and ideal world; and sometimes, no doubt, we find it difficult to
choose our direction, because it does not yet exist distinctly in
our idea.
When I go out of the house for a walk, uncertain as yet whither I
will bend my steps, and submit myself to my instinct to decide
for me, I find, strange and whimsical as it may seem, that I
finally and inevitably settle southwest, toward some particular
wood or meadow or deserted pasture or hill in that direction. My
needle is slow to settle,--varies a few degrees, and does not
always point due southwest, it is true, and it has good authority
for this variation, but it always settles between west and
Walking |
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 Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling: whole tribe of Bandar-log swept along the tree-roads with Mowgli
their prisoner.
For a time he was afraid of being dropped. Then he grew angry
but knew better than to struggle, and then he began to think. The
first thing was to send back word to Baloo and Bagheera, for, at
the pace the monkeys were going, he knew his friends would be left
far behind. It was useless to look down, for he could only see
the topsides of the branches, so he stared upward and saw, far
away in the blue, Rann the Kite balancing and wheeling as he kept
watch over the jungle waiting for things to die. Rann saw that
the monkeys were carrying something, and dropped a few hundred
The Jungle Book |
