| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde: mystery also.
He began to wonder whether we could ever make psychology so absolute
a science that each little spring of life would be revealed to us.
As it was, we always misunderstood ourselves and rarely understood others.
Experience was of no ethical value. It was merely the name men gave to
their mistakes. Moralists had, as a rule, regarded it as a mode of warning,
had claimed for it a certain ethical efficacy in the formation of character,
had praised it as something that taught us what to follow and showed
us what to avoid. But there was no motive power in experience.
It was as little of an active cause as conscience itself. All that it
really demonstrated was that our future would be the same as our past,
The Picture of Dorian Gray |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Ancient Regime by Charles Kingsley: superstitions, public opinions--whether from the ancient public
opinion that the sun went round the earth, or the equally public
opinion, that those who dared to differ from public opinion were
hateful to the deity, and therefore worthy of death--from all these
blasts of Fame's lying trumpet they helped to deliver men; and they
therefore helped to insure something like peace and personal
security for those quiet, modest, and generally virtuous men, who,
as students of physical science, devoted their lives, during the
eighteenth century, to asking of nature--What are the facts of the
case?
It was no coincidence, but a connection of cause and effect, that
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