| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Cromwell by William Shakespeare: Is this the thanks I have for all my pains?
Confusion light upon you all for me.
Where he had wont to give a score of crowns,
Doth he now foist me with a Portague?
Well, I will be revenged upon this Banister.
I'll to his creditors, buy all the debts he owes,
As seeming that I do it for good will.
I am sure to have them at an easy rate,
And when tis done, in christendom he stays not,
But I'll make his heart to ache with sorrow:
And if that Banister become my debtor,
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx: Society suddenly finds itself put back into a state of momentary
barbarism; it appears as if a famine, a universal war of
devastation had cut off the supply of every means of subsistence;
industry and commerce seem to be destroyed; and why? Because
there is too much civilisation, too much means of subsistence,
too much industry, too much commerce. The productive forces at
the disposal of society no longer tend to further the development
of the conditions of bourgeois property; on the contrary, they
have become too powerful for these conditions, by which they are
fettered, and so soon as they overcome these fetters, they bring
disorder into the whole of bourgeois society, endanger the
The Communist Manifesto |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Mirror of the Sea by Joseph Conrad: popular statesman, Mr. Y, the popular scientist, or Mr. Z, the
popular - what shall we say? - anything from a teacher of high
morality to a bagman - who have won their little race. But I would
like (though not accustomed to betting) to wager a large sum that
not one of the few first-rate skippers of racing yachts has ever
been a humbug. It would have been too difficult. The difficulty
arises from the fact that one does not deal with ships in a mob,
but with a ship as an individual. So we may have to do with men.
But in each of us there lurks some particle of the mob spirit, of
the mob temperament. No matter how earnestly we strive against
each other, we remain brothers on the lowest side of our intellect
The Mirror of the Sea |
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 Dawn O'Hara, The Girl Who Laughed by Edna Ferber: fairly and justly, I should not hesitate for one single,
precious moment. If he could fight for his rights, or
relinquish them, as he saw fit, then this thing would not
be so monstrous. But, Ernst, can't you see? He is
there, alone, in that dreadful place, quite helpless,
quite incapable, quite at our mercy. I should as soon
think of hurting a little child, or snatching the pennies
from a blind man's cup. The thing is inhuman! It is
monstrous! No state laws, no red tape can dissolve such
a union."
"You still care for him!"
|
