| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Psychology of Revolution by Gustave le Bon: intelligence is to-day general in all classes, from the working-
classes to the upper strata of the bourgeoisie. The results
are envy, detraction, and a love of attack, of raillery, of
persecution, and a habit of attributing all actions to low
motives, of refusing to believe in probity, disinterestedness,
and intelligence.
Conversation, among the people as among the most cultivated
Frenchmen, is stamped with the craze for abasing and abusing
everything and everyone. Even the greatest of the dead do not
escape this tendency. Never were so many books written to
depreciate the merit of famous men, men who were formerly
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories by Alice Dunbar: Baptiste was, furthermore, very much wrinkled and lame. Like the
Son of Man, he had nowhere to lay his head, save when some kindly
family made room for him in a garret or a barn. He subsisted by
doing odd jobs, white-washing, cleaning yards, doing errands, and
the like.
The little old man was a frequenter of the levee. Never a day
passed that his quaint little figure was not seen moving up and
down about the ships. Chiefly did he haunt the Texas and Pacific
warehouses and the landing-place of the Morgan-line steamships.
This seemed like madness, for these spots are almost the busiest
on the levee, and the rough seamen and 'longshoremen have least
The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from 'Twixt Land & Sea by Joseph Conrad: had been ill. And no wonder. He had been, I heard presently, kept
under arrest in his cabin for nearly seven weeks. But there was
nothing sickly in his eyes or in his expression. He was not a bit
like me, really; yet, as we stood leaning over my bed-place,
whispering side by side, with our dark heads together and our backs
to the door, anybody bold enough to open it stealthily would have
been treated to the uncanny sight of a double captain busy talking
in whispers with his other self.
"But all this doesn't tell me how you came to hang on to our side-
ladder," I inquired, in the hardly audible murmurs we used, after
he had told me something more of the proceedings on board the
'Twixt Land & 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 Pellucidar by Edgar Rice Burroughs: so at last we set forth from our hut for the last time,
carrying such necessities as we felt we could least afford
to do without. The bears seemed unusually troublesome
and determined that time, and as we clambered slowly
upward beyond the highest point to which we had
previously attained, the cold became infinitely more
intense.
Presently, with two great bears dogging our footsteps
we entered a dense fog,
We had reached the heights that are so often cloud-
wrapped for long periods. We could see nothing a few
Pellucidar |
