| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Ancient Regime by Charles Kingsley: angry surprise--what progress has the human mind made since 1815?
If the thought be startling, do me the great honour of taking it
home, and verifying for yourselves its truth or its falsehood. I do
not say that it is altogether true. No proposition concerning human
things, stated so broadly, can be. But see for yourselves, whether
it is not at least more true than false; whether the ideas, the
discoveries, of which we boast most in the nineteenth century, are
not really due to the end of the eighteenth. Whether other men did
not labour, and we have only entered into their labours. Whether
our positivist spirit, our content with the collecting of facts, our
dread of vast theories, is not a symptom--wholesome, prudent,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield: up and asking me if it was cold--and her little nose looked...pinched. I
didn't like leaving her; I knew I'd be worrying all the time. At last I
asked her if she'd rather I put it off. "Oh no, Ellen," she said, "you
mustn't mind about me. You mustn't disappoint your young man." And so
cheerful, you know, madam, never thinking about herself. It made me feel
worse than ever. I began to wonder...then she dropped her handkerchief and
began to stoop down to pick it up herself--a thing she never did.
"Whatever are you doing!" I cried, running to stop her. "Well," she said,
smiling, you know, madam, "I shall have to begin to practise." Oh, it was
all I could do not to burst out crying. I went over to the dressing-table
and made believe to rub up the silver, and I couldn't keep myself in, and I
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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 Russia in 1919 by Arthur Ransome: the opposite point of view and represented the same attitude
with regard to the reorganization of industry as is held by
many who object to Trotsky's use of officers of the old army
in the reorganization of the new, believing that all who
worked in high places under the old regime must be and
remain enemies of the revolution, so that their employment
is a definite source of danger. Glebov is a trade union
representative, and his speech was a clear indication of the
non-political undercurrent towards the left which may shake
the Bolshevik position and will most certainly come into
violent conflict with any definitely bourgeois government
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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 One Basket by Edna Ferber: a new stewpan at the five-and-ten.
There had been a time when Tessie, if she thought of these women
at all, felt sorry for them--worn, drab, lacking in style and
figure. Now she envied them.
There were weeks upon weeks when no letter came from Chuck. In
his last letter there had been some talk of his being sent to
Russia. Tessie's eyes, large enough now in her thin face,
distended with a great fear. Russia! His letter spoke, too, of
French villages and chateaux. He and a bunch of fellows had been
introduced to a princess or a countess or something--it was all
one to Tessie--and what do you think? She had kissed them all on
One Basket |
