| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Crowd by Gustave le Bon: been speaking; but very few of them to all appearance seem
endowed with vitality and destined to acquire a preponderating
influence.
Whatever be the ideas suggested to crowds they can only exercise
effective influence on condition that they assume a very
absolute, uncompromising, and simple shape. They present
themselves then in the guise of images, and are only accessible
to the masses under this form. These imagelike ideas are not
connected by any logical bond of analogy or succession, and may
take each other's place like the slides of a magic-lantern which
the operator withdraws from the groove in which they were placed
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Essays of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: you were rooked and beaten. You must enter a hotel with military
precautions; for the least you had to apprehend was to awake next
morning without money or baggage, or necessary raiment, a lone forked
radish in a bed; and if the worst befell, you would instantly and
mysteriously disappear from the ranks of mankind.
I have usually found such stories correspond to the least modicum of
fact. Thus I was warned, I remember, against the roadside inns of
the Cevennes, and that by a learned professor; and when I reached
Pradelles the warning was explained - it was but the far-away rumour
and reduplication of a single terrifying story already half a century
old, and half forgotten in the theatre of the events. So I was
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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 Lady Susan by Jane Austen: uncle last Thursday fortnight, when, of course, I lost no time in demanding
the cause of her behaviour; and soon found myself to have been perfectly
right in attributing it to my own letter. The prospect of it frightened her
so thoroughly, that, with a mixture of true girlish perverseness and folly,
she resolved on getting out of the house and proceeding directly by the
stage to her friends, the Clarkes; and had really got as far as the length
of two streets in her journey when she was fortunately missed, pursued, and
overtaken. Such was the first distinguished exploit of Miss Frederica
Vernon; and, if we consider that it was achieved at the tender age of
sixteen, we shall have room for the most flattering prognostics of her
future renown. I am excessively provoked, however, at the parade of
Lady Susan |
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 Democracy In America, Volume 2 by Alexis de Toqueville: "Public-houses shall not entertain any other than strangers
or lodgers, under penalty of five shillings for every person
found drinking and abiding therein.
"Any person in health, who, without sufficient reason, shall
omit to worship God in public during three months, shall be
condemned to a fine of ten shillings.
"Any person guilty of misbehaviour in a place of public
worship, shall be fined from five to forty shillings.
"These laws are to be enforced by the tything-men of each
township, who have authority to visit public-houses on the
Sunday. The innkeeper who shall refuse them admittance, shall be
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