| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte by Karl Marx: name, not their substance.
The inevitable "General Staff" of the "freedoms" of 1848--personal
freedom, freedom of the press, of speech, of association and of
assemblage, freedom of instruction, of religion, etc.--received a
constitutional uniform that rendered them invulnerable. Each of these
freedoms is proclaimed the absolute right of the French citizen, but
always with the gloss that it is unlimited in so far only as it be not
curtailed by the "equal rights of others," and by the "public safety,"
or by the "laws," which are intended to effect this harmony. For
instance:
"Citizens have the right of association, of peaceful and unarmed
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Case of the Golden Bullet by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: innocence, of many in cases where the official department was as
blind as Justice is proverbially supposed to be. Joseph Muller has
become the idol of all who are engaged in this weary business of
hunting down wrong and punishing crime. He is without a peer in his
profession. But he has also become the idol of some of the criminals.
For if he discovers (as sometimes happens) that the criminal is a
good sort after all, he is just as likely to warn his prey, once he
has all proofs of the guilt and a conviction is certain. Possibly
this is his way of taking the sting from his irresistible impulse to
ferret out hidden mysteries. But it is rather inconvenient, and he
has hurt himself by it - hurt himself badly. They were tired of his
|
