| 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: constituting castes. I have already insisted upon the
conservative spirit of crowds, and shown that the most violent
rebellions merely end in a changing of words and terms. At the
end of the last century, in the presence of destroyed churches,
of priests expelled the country or guillotined, it might have
been thought that the old religious ideas had lost all their
strength, and yet a few years had barely lapsed before the
abolished system of public worship had to be re-established in
deference to universal demands.[8]
[8] The report of the ex-Conventionist, Fourcroy, quoted by
Taine, is very clear on this point.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Dynamiter by Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny Van De Grift Stevenson: had run low; the summer sun had finally withdrawn; and at the
same moment, night and the pangs of hunger recalled him from
his dreams.
He went forth, and dined in the Criterion: a dinner in
consonance, not so much with his purse, as with the admirable
wine he had discussed. What with one thing and another, it
was long past midnight when he returned home. A cab was at
the door; and entering the hall, Somerset found himself face
to face with one of the most regular of the few who visited
Mr. Jones: a man of powerful figure, strong lineaments, and
a chin-beard in the American fashion. This person was
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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 Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf: in love. They had got further and further from that subject instead
of drawing nearer to it, and she could not help feeling it a relief
when William Pepper, with all his knowledge, his microscope,
his note-books, his genuine kindliness and good sense, but a certain
dryness of soul, took his departure. Also she could not help
feeling it sad that friendships should end thus, although in this
case to have the room empty was something of a comfort, and she
tried to console herself with the reflection that one never knows
how far other people feel the things they might be supposed to feel.
Chapter VIII
The next few months passed away, as many years can pass away,
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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 La Grenadiere by Honore de Balzac: left the harbor of Rochefort. Leaning over the bulwarks of the
corvette Iris, he watched the coast of France receding swiftly till it
became indistinguishable from the faint blue horizon line. In a little
while he felt that he was really alone, and lost in the wide ocean,
lost and alone in the world and in life.
"There is no need to cry, lad; there is a God for us all," said an old
sailor, with rough kindliness in his thick voice.
The boy thanked him with pride in his eyes. Then he bowed his head,
and resigned himself to a sailor's life. He was a father.
ANGOULEME, August, 1832.
ADDENDUM
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