| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Sentimental Journey by Laurence Sterne: before he had well got announced, begg'd I would do him the honour
to present him to the lady. - I had not been presented myself; - so
turning about to her, he did it just as well, by asking her if she
had come from Paris? No: she was going that route, she said. -
VOUS N'ETES PAS DE LONDRES? - She was not, she replied. - Then
Madame must have come through Flanders. - APPAREMMENT VOUS ETES
FLAMMANDE? said the French captain. - The lady answered, she was. -
PEUT ETRE DE LISLE? added he. - She said, she was not of Lisle. -
Nor Arras? - nor Cambray? - nor Ghent? - nor Brussels? - She
answered, she was of Brussels.
He had had the honour, he said, to be at the bombardment of it last
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Shadow out of Time by H. P. Lovecraft: would be drained of all its knowledge by trained questioners.
Often it could be questioned in its own language, when previous
quests into the future had brought back records of that language.
If the mind came from a body whose language the Great Race could
not physically reproduce, clever machines would be made, on which
the alien speech could be played as on a musical instrument.
The
Great Race's members were immense rugose cones ten feet high,
and with head and other organs attached to foot-thick, distensible
limbs spreading from the apexes. They spoke by the clicking or
scraping of huge paws or claws attached to the end of two of their
Shadow out of Time |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Charmides and Other Poems by Oscar Wilde: Ran to their shields in haste precipitate,
Or strained black-bearded throats across the dusky parapet.
For round the temple rolled the clang of arms,
And the twelve Gods leapt up in marble fear,
And the air quaked with dissonant alarums
Till huge Poseidon shook his mighty spear,
And on the frieze the prancing horses neighed,
And the low tread of hurrying feet rang from the cavalcade.
Ready for death with parted lips he stood,
And well content at such a price to see
That calm wide brow, that terrible maidenhood,
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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 First Inaugural Address by Abraham Lincoln: such decision may be erroneous in any given case, still the evil effect
following it, being limited to that particular case, with the chance that
it may be overruled and never become a precedent for other cases,
can better be borne than could the evils of a different practice.
At the same time, the candid citizen must confess that if the policy
of the government, upon vital questions affecting the whole people,
is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court,
the instant they are made, in ordinary litigation between parties
in personal actions, the people will have ceased to be their own rulers,
having to that extent practically resigned their government into the hands
of that eminent tribunal. Nor is there in this view any assault upon
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