| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Shadow out of Time by H. P. Lovecraft: It was evident that
the coming doom so desperately feared by the Great Race - the
doom that was one day to send millions of keen minds across the
chasm of time to strange bodies in the safer future - had to do
with a final successful irruption of the elder beings.
Mental
projections down the ages had clearly foretold such a horror,
and the Great Race had resolved that none who could escape should
face it. That the foray would be a matter of vengeance, rather
than an attempt to reoccupy the outer world, they knew from the
planet's later history - for their projections shewed the coming
Shadow out of Time |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Mrs. Warren's Profession by George Bernard Shaw: existing institutions. Consequently the first condition of
progress is the removal of censorships. There is the whole case
against censorships in a nutshell.
It will be asked whether theatrical managers are to be allowed to
produce what they like, without regard to the public interest.
But that is not the alternative. The managers of our London
music-halls are not subject to any censorship. They produce
their entertainments on their own responsibility, and have no
two-guinea certificates to plead if their houses are conducted
viciously. They know that if they lose their character, the
County Council will simply refuse to renew their license at the
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Crowd by Gustave le Bon: bourgeois, lacking in initiative and will-power, or
anarchists--"those two equally harmful types of the civilised
man, who degenerates into impotent platitude or insane
destructiveness"--he too, I say, draws a comparison that cannot
be the object of too much reflection between our French lycees
(public schools), those factories of degeneration, and the
American schools, which prepare a man admirably for life. The
gulf existing between truly democratic nations and those who have
democracy in their speeches, but in no wise in their thoughts, is
clearly brought out in this comparison.
Have we digressed in what precedes from the psychology of crowds?
|
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 Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad: to get a job. Heavens! Well, you see, the notion drove me.
I had an aunt, a dear enthusiastic soul. She wrote: `It will be delightful.
I am ready to do anything, anything for you. It is a glorious idea.
I know the wife of a very high personage in the Administration,
and also a man who has lots of influence with,' etc. She was determined
to make no end of fuss to get me appointed skipper of a river steamboat,
if such was my fancy.
"I got my appointment--of course; and I got it very quick.
It appears the Company had received news that one of their
captains had been killed in a scuffle with the natives.
This was my chance, and it made me the more anxious to go.
Heart of Darkness |
