| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Somebody's Little Girl by Martha Young: remember, while the lady talked.
Only long after, when Bessie Bell grew much larger, it happened that
whenever she saw an old-fashioned peacock-feather-fly-brush--at
first, just for a second, she felt very glad; and then, just for a
second, she felt very sorry; and she never knew or could remember
why. She forgot after awhile how she had been so full of sorrow
when Sister Justina said, Be Ashamed, and she could no longer
remember why she was glad; only a feeling of both was left--and she
could not tell how or why.
But the lady would not let Bessie Bell get far from her, and Bessie
did not care to go far from her. She stood with her little pink
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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 Rescue by Joseph Conrad: "Ya, Tuan," answered the man, glancing rapidly at the sky. "Wind
coming," he muttered.
"I think so, too," whispered Lingard as if to himself.
The shadows were gathering rapidly round the brig. A mulatto put
his head out of the companion and called out:
"Ready, sir."
"Let's get a mouthful of something to eat, Shaw," said Lingard.
"I say, just take a look around before coming below. It will be
dark when we come up again."
"Certainly, sir," said Shaw, taking up a long glass and putting
it to his eyes. "Blessed thing," he went on in snatches while he
The Rescue |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Soul of Man by Oscar Wilde: Private property has crushed true Individualism, and set up an
Individualism that is false. It has debarred one part of the
community from being individual by starving them. It has debarred
the other part of the community from being individual by putting
them on the wrong road, and encumbering them. Indeed, so
completely has man's personality been absorbed by his possessions
that the English law has always treated offences against a man's
property with far more severity than offences against his person,
and property is still the test of complete citizenship. The
industry necessary for the making money is also very demoralising.
In a community like ours, where property confers immense
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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 War and the Future by H. G. Wells: temporary confusion of our party by the arrival and explosion of
another prospective souvenir in our close proximity. And two
really very large and almost complete specimens of some species
of /Ammonites/ unknown to me, from the hills to the east of
the Adige, partially wrapped in a back number of the /Corriere
della Sera/, that were pressed upon me by a friendly officer,
were unfortunately lost on the line between Verona and Milan
through the gross negligence of a railway porter. But I doubt if
they would have thrown any very conclusive light upon the war.
2
I avow myself an extreme Pacifist. I am against the man who
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