| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tono Bungay by H. G. Wells: One day I came into Raggett Street at lunch time and she was
alone, sitting at her desk. She glanced up as I entered, and
then became very still, with a downcast face and her hands
clenched on the table. I walked right by her to the door of the
inner office, stopped, came back and stood over her.
We neither of us spoke for quite a perceptible time. I was
trembling violently.
"Is that one of the new typewriters?" I asked at last for the
sake of speaking.
She looked up at me without a word, with her face flushed and her
eyes alight, and I bent down and kissed her lips. She leant back
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Enoch Arden, &c. by Alfred Tennyson: (You spoke so loud) has roused the child again.
Sleep, little birdie, sleep! will she not sleep
Without her "little birdie?" well then, sleep,
And I will sing you "birdie."'
Saying this,
The woman half turn'd round from him she loved,
Left him one hand, and reaching thro' the night
Her other, found (for it was close beside)
And half embraced the basket cradle-head
With one soft arm, which, like the pliant bough
That moving moves the nest and nestling, sway'd
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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 Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen: set to work in the loft. The trunks were moved, the tree was pulled out and
thrown--rather hard, it is true--down on the floor, but a man drew him towards
the stairs, where the daylight shone.
"Now a merry life will begin again," thought the Tree. He felt the fresh air,
the first sunbeam--and now he was out in the courtyard. All passed so quickly,
there was so much going on around him, the Tree quite forgot to look to
himself. The court adjoined a garden, and all was in flower; the roses hung so
fresh and odorous over the balustrade, the lindens were in blossom, the
Swallows flew by, and said, "Quirre-vit! My husband is come!" but it was not
the Fir Tree that they meant.
"Now, then, I shall really enjoy life," said he exultingly, and spread out his
Fairy Tales |
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 Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx: existence. These also supply the proletariat with fresh elements
of enlightenment and progress.
Finally, in times when the class struggle nears the decisive
hour, the process of dissolution going on within the ruling
class, in fact within the whole range of society, assumes such a
violent, glaring character, that a small section of the ruling
class cuts itself adrift, and joins the revolutionary class, the
class that holds the future in its hands. Just as, therefore, at
an earlier period, a section of the nobility went over to the
bourgeoisie, so now a portion of the bourgeoisie goes over to the
proletariat, and in particular, a portion of the bourgeois
The Communist Manifesto |
