| 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: we shall now proceed to examine how their opinions and beliefs
arise and become established.
The factors which determine these opinions and beliefs are of two
kinds: remote factors and immediate factors.
The remote factors are those which render crowds capable of
adopting certain convictions and absolutely refractory to the
acceptance of others. These factors prepare the ground in which
are suddenly seen to germinate certain new ideas whose force and
consequences are a cause of astonishment, though they are only
spontaneous in appearance. The outburst and putting in practice
of certain ideas among crowds present at times a startling
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Fables by Robert Louis Stevenson: such a work about; and he had Tom Redruth shot; and - well, if
that's a Author, give me Pew!"
"Don't you believe in a future state?" said Smollett. "Do you
think there's nothing but the present story-paper?"
"I don't rightly know for that," said Silver; "and I don't see what
it's got to do with it, anyway. What I know is this: if there is
sich a thing as a Author, I'm his favourite chara'ter. He does me
fathoms better'n he does you - fathoms, he does. And he likes
doing me. He keeps me on deck mostly all the time, crutch and all;
and he leaves you measling in the hold, where nobody can't see you,
nor wants to, and you may lay to that! If there is a Author, by
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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 The Illustrious Gaudissart by Honore de Balzac: "You consent to push me in the district?"
"In the district."
"I have your approbation?"
"You have it."
"Well, then, Monsieur, I take your wine at a hundred francs--"
"No, no! hundred and ten--"
"Monsieur! A hundred and ten for the company, but a hundred to me. I
enable you to make a sale; you owe me a commission."
"Charge 'em a hundred and twenty,"--"cent vingt" ("sans vin," without
wine).
"Capital pun that!"
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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 Turn of the Screw by Henry James: closed in. Agitation, in the interval, certainly had held me
and driven me, for I must, in circling about the place, have walked
three miles; but I was to be, later on, so much more overwhelmed
that this mere dawn of alarm was a comparatively human chill.
The most singular part of it, in fact--singular as the rest had been--
was the part I became, in the hall, aware of in meeting Mrs. Grose.
This picture comes back to me in the general train--the impression,
as I received it on my return, of the wide white panelled space,
bright in the lamplight and with its portraits and red carpet,
and of the good surprised look of my friend, which immediately
told me she had missed me. It came to me straightway,
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