| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Essays of Francis Bacon by Francis Bacon: a strait hand, upon the devouring trades of usury,
ingrossing great pasturages, and the like.
For removing discontentments, or at least the
danger of them; there is in every state (as we
know) two portions of subjects; the noblesse and
the commonalty. When one of these is discontent,
the danger is not great; for common people are of
slow motion, if they be not excited by the greater
sort; and the greater sort are of small strength,
except the multitude be apt, and ready to move of
themselves. Then is the danger, when the greater
Essays of Francis Bacon |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis: fellows with hair on their chests and smiles in their eyes and adding-machines
in their offices. We're not doing any boasting, but we like ourselves
first-rate, and if you don't like us, look out--better get under cover before
the cyclone hits town!"
"'So! In my clumsy way I have tried to sketch the Real He-man, the fellow with
Zip and Bang. And it's because Zenith has so large a proportion of such men
that it's the most stable, the greatest of our cities. New York also has its
thousands of Real Folks, but New York is cursed with unnumbered foreigners. So
are Chicago and San Francisco. Oh, we have a golden roster of cities--Detroit
and Cleveland with their renowned factories, Cincinnati with its great
machine-tool and soap products, Pittsburg and Birmingham with their steel,
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Lamentable Tragedy of Locrine and Mucedorus by William Shakespeare: [Enter Amadine and Ariana her maid.]
AMADINE.
Ariana, if any body ask for me,
Make some excuse till I return.
ARIANA.
What and Segasto call?
AMADINE.
Do thou the like to him; I mean not to stay long.
[Exit Ariana.]
MUCEDORUS.
This voice so sweet my pining spirits revives.
|
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 An Inland Voyage by Robert Louis Stevenson: chimneys, their washings and dinners, a rooted piece of nature in
the scene; and yet if only the canal below were to open, one junk
after another would hoist sail or harness horses and swim away into
all parts of France; and the impromptu hamlet would separate, house
by house, to the four winds. The children who played together to-
day by the Sambre and Oise Canal, each at his own father's
threshold, when and where might they next meet?
For some time past the subject of barges had occupied a great deal
of our talk, and we had projected an old age on the canals of
Europe. It was to be the most leisurely of progresses, now on a
swift river at the tail of a steam-boat, now waiting horses for
|
