| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas: interpreters, persons always troublesome and frequently
indiscreet, gave him great facilities of communication,
either with the vessels he met at sea, with the small boats
sailing along the coast, or with the people without name,
country, or occupation, who are always seen on the quays of
seaports, and who live by hidden and mysterious means which
we must suppose to be a direct gift of providence, as they
have no visible means of support. It is fair to assume that
Dantes was on board a smuggler.
At first the captain had received Dantes on board with a
certain degree of distrust. He was very well known to the
The Count of Monte Cristo |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Treatise on Parents and Children by George Bernard Shaw: education) is not so silly as it looks. It is true that the Bible
inculcates half a dozen religions: some of them barbarous; some
cynical and pessimistic; some amoristic and romantic; some sceptical
and challenging; some kindly, simple, and intuitional; some
sophistical and intellectual; none suited to the character and
conditions of western civilization unless it be the Christianity which
was finally suppressed by the Crucifixion, and has never been put into
practice by any State before or since. But the Bible contains the
ancient literature of a very remarkable Oriental race; and the
imposition of this literature, on whatever false pretences, on our
children left them more literate than if they knew no literature at
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