| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from When the Sleeper Wakes by H. G. Wells: But this is the second aristocracy. The real one.
Those days of gunpowder and democracy were only
an eddy in the stream. The common man now is a
helpless unit. In these days we have this great
machine of the city, and an organisation complex
beyond his understanding."
"Yet," said Graham, "there is something resists,
something you are holding down--something that
stirs and presses."
"You will see," said Ostrog, with a forced smile that
would brush these difficult questions aside. "I have
When the Sleeper Wakes |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Woman of No Importance by Oscar Wilde: that. He has been awfully good to me, mother.
MRS. ARBUTHNOT. Lord Illingworth may change his mind. He may not
really want you as his secretary.
GERALD. Mother!
MRS. ARBUTHNOT. You must remember, as you said yourself, you have
had so few advantages.
MRS. ALLONBY. Lord Illingworth, I want to speak to you for a
moment. Do come over.
LORD ILLINGWORTH. Will you excuse me, Mrs. Arbuthnot? Now, don't
let your charming mother make any more difficulties, Gerald. The
thing is quite settled, isn't it?
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Economist by Xenophon: this lack of discpline on his part." Cf. "Cyrop." VII. ii. 6.
[30] Or, "the works of his wife." For the sentiment cf. Soph. "Oed.
Col." 337 foll.; Herod. ii. 35.
I added: "Just such works, if I mistake not, that same queen-bee we
spoke of labours hard to perform, like yours, my wife, enjoined upon
her by God Himself."
"And what sort of works are these?" she asked; "what has the queen-bee
to do that she seems so like myself, or I like her in what I have to
do?"
"Why," I answered, "she too stays in the hive and suffers not the
other bees to idle. Those whose duty it is to work outside she sends
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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 Polity of Athenians and Lacedaemonians by Xenophon: In connection with this matter, Lycurgus had not failed to observe the
effect of equal amounts of food on different persons. The hardworking
man has a good complexion, his muscles are well fed, he is robust and
strong. The man who abstains from work, on the other hand, may be
detected by his miserable appearance; he is blotched and puffy, and
devoid of strength. This observation, I say, was not wasted on him. On
the contrary, turning it over in his mind that any one who chooses, as
a matter of private judgment, to devote himself to toil may hope to
present a very creditable appearance physically, he enjoined upon the
eldest for the time being in every gymnasium to see to it that the
labours of the class were proportional to the meats.[12] And to my
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