| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from On the Duty of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau: it is not even a minority then; but it is irresistible when
it clogs by its whole weight. If the alternative is to keep
all just men in prison, or give up war and slavery, the
State will not hesitate which to choose. If a thousand men
were not to pay their tax bills this year, that would not be
a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them,
and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent
blood. This is, in fact, the definition of a peaceable
revolution, if any such is possible. If the tax-gatherer,
or any other public officer, asks me, as one has done, "But
what shall I do?" my answer is, "If you really wish to do
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Brother of Daphne by Dornford Yates: "Ask Pomfret," said I. "He's in disgrace."
"You haven't hurt him?"
"He nearly killed me."
"What happened"
"Lost his temper just because the petrol ran out. Believe me, a
horrid exhibition. Absolutely let himself go. In other words,
the brakes failed, and I had to run him into the bushes. One
lamp and one wing broken, otherwise unhurt. To adjusting brakes
-materials, nil; labour, three hours at a drink an hour, three
pints ale. Oh, rotten, my dear, rotten!"
I sank into a chair.
The Brother of Daphne |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Coxon Fund by Henry James: Mulville." I rejoiced with her over plain Adelaide, whom she
pronounced the loveliest woman she had met in England; but before
we separated I remarked to her that it was an act of mere humanity
to warn her that if she should see more of Frank Saltram--which
would be likely to follow on any increase of acquaintance with Mrs.
Mulville--she might find herself flattening her nose against the
clear hard pane of an eternal question--that of the relative, that
of the opposed, importances of virtue and brains. She replied that
this was surely a subject on which one took everything for granted;
whereupon I admitted that I had perhaps expressed myself ill. What
I referred to was what I had referred to the night we met in Upper
|
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 Macbeth by William Shakespeare: Macb. And Thane of Cawdor too: went it not so?
Banq. Toth' selfe-same tune and words: who's here?
Enter Rosse and Angus.
Rosse. The King hath happily receiu'd, Macbeth,
The newes of thy successe: and when he reades
Thy personall Venture in the Rebels sight,
His Wonders and his Prayses doe contend,
Which should be thine, or his: silenc'd with that,
In viewing o're the rest o'th' selfe-same day,
He findes thee in the stout Norweyan Rankes,
Nothing afeard of what thy selfe didst make
Macbeth |
