| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Crisis in Russia by Arthur Ransome: before the "People's Court" (equivalent to the ordinary Civil
Court), or, in the case of repeated or very bad offenses,
were to be brought before the far more dreaded
Revolutionary Tribunals. Six categories of possible offenses
were placed upon the new code:
(1)Avoiding registration, absenteeism, or desertion.
(2)The preparation of false documents or the use of such.
(3)Officials giving false information to facilitate these crimes.
(4)Purposeful damage of instruments or material.
(5)Uneconomical or careless work.
(6)(Probably the most serious of all) Instigation to any of
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Animal Farm by George Orwell: except with picks and crowbars, which no animal could use, because no
animal could stand on his hind legs. Only after weeks of vain effort did
the right idea occur to somebody-namely, to utilise the force of gravity.
Huge boulders, far too big to be used as they were, were lying all over
the bed of the quarry. The animals lashed ropes round these, and then all
together, cows, horses, sheep, any animal that could lay hold of the
rope--even the pigs sometimes joined in at critical moments--they dragged
them with desperate slowness up the slope to the top of the quarry, where
they were toppled over the edge, to shatter to pieces below. Transporting
the stone when it was once broken was comparatively simple. The horses
carried it off in cart-loads, the sheep dragged single blocks, even Muriel
Animal Farm |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: see already new sins ringing up like mustard - School Board
sins, factory sins, Merchant Shipping Act sins - none of
which I would be thought to except against in particular, but
all of which, taken together, show us that Socialism can be a
hard master even in the beginning. If it go on to such
heights as we hear proposed and lauded, if it come actually
to its ideal of the ant-heap, ruled with iron justice, the
number of new contraventions will be out of all proportion
multiplied. Take the case of work alone. Man is an idle
animal. He is at least as intelligent as the ant; but
generations of advisers have in vain recommended him the
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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 Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland by Olive Schreiner: from Lo Magundis or anywhere else! I'm sure he said it fifteen times. And
then he broke out, 'I don't mean that I'm better than you or anybody else,
Captain; I'm as bad a man as any in camp, and I know it.' And off he
started, telling us all the sins he'd ever committed; and he kept on, 'I'm
an unlearned, ignorant man, Captain; but I must stand by this nigger; he's
got no one else!' And then he says--'If you let me take him up to Lo
Magundis, sir, I'm not afraid; and I'll tell the people there that it's not
their land and their women that we want, it's them to be our brothers and
love us. If you'll only let me go, sir, I'll go and make peace; give the
man to me, sir!'" The Colonial shook with laughter.
"What did the Captain say?" asked the Englishman.
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