| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Crisis in Russia by Arthur Ransome: among the population. This is true of both sides, but seems
to affect the Whites especially. Although General Baron Wrangel
does indeed seem to have striven more successfully
than his predecessors not to set the population against him
and to preserve the loyalty of his army, it may be said with
absolute certainty that any large success on his part would
bring crowding to his banner the same crowd of stupid
reactionary officers who brought to nothing any mild desire
for moderation that may have been felt by General Denikin.
If the area he controls increases, his power of control over
his subordinates will decrease, and the forces that led to
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Father Damien by Robert Louis Stevenson: sepulchre.
I shall now extract three passages from my diary at Kalawao.
A. "Damien is dead and already somewhat ungratefully remembered in
the field of his labours and sufferings. 'He was a good man, but
very officious,' says one. Another tells me he had fallen (as
other priests so easily do) into something of the ways and habits
of thought of a Kanaka; but he had the wit to recognise the fact,
and the good sense to laugh at" [over] "it. A plain man it seems
he was; I cannot find he was a popular."
B. "After Ragsdale's death" [Ragsdale was a famous Luna, or
overseer, of the unruly settlement] "there followed a brief term of
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Before Adam by Jack London: haunts, her father maybe a renegade Fire-Man, her
mother maybe one of my own kind, one of the Folk. But
who shall say? These things are beyond me, and the
Swift One knew no more about them than did I.
We lived through a day of terror. Most of the
survivors fled toward the blueberry swamp and took
refuge in the forest in that neighborhood. And all day
hunting parties of the Fire People ranged the forest,
killing us wherever they found us. It must have been a
deliberately executed plan. Increasing beyond the
limits of their own territory, they had decided on
|
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 The Ancient Regime by Charles Kingsley: plans, for as long as they lasted;--of Bode, the knight of the
lilies of the valley, who, having caught Duke Ernest of Saxe Gotha,
was himself caught by Knigge, and his eight, nine, or more ascending
orders of unwisdom;--and finally of the Jesuits who, really with
considerable excuses for their severity, fell upon these poor
foolish Illuminati in 1784 throughout Bavaria, and had them exiled
or imprisoned;--of all this you may read in the pages of Dr. Findel,
and in many another book. For, forgotten as they are now, they made
noise enough in their time.
And so it befell, that this eighteenth century, which is usually
held to be the most "materialistic" of epochs, was, in fact, a most
|
