| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain: and there is practically no limit to their power of escape.
'During the epidemic in New Orleans in 1853, Dr. E. H. Barton
reported that in the Fourth District the mortality was four hundred
and fifty-two per thousand--more than double that of any other.
In this district were three large cemeteries, in which during
the previous year more than three thousand bodies had been buried.
In other districts the proximity of cemeteries seemed to
aggravate the disease.
'In 1828 Professor Bianchi demonstrated how the fearful reappearance
of the plague at Modena was caused by excavations in ground where,
THREE HUNDRED YEARS PREVIOUSLY, the victims of the pestilence had
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Royalty Restored/London Under Charles II by J. Fitzgerald Molloy: cloak.
Nor was this all. According to the "Chronicle of the late
Intestine War," Cromwell "would sometimes pretend to be merry,
and invite persons, of whom he had some suspicion, to his cups,
and then drill out of their open hearts such secrets as he wisht
for. He had freaks also to divert the vexations of his misgiving
thoughts, calling on by the beat of drum his footguards, like a
kennel of hounds to snatch away the scraps and reliques of his
table. He said every man's hand was against him, and that he ran
daily into further perplexities, out of which it was impossible
to extricate, or secure himself therein, without running into
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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 Dust by Mr. And Mrs. Haldeman-Julius: only stand there, away from the window, looking out at the sheets
of water running down the panes and shivering with the
frightfulness and savageness of it all.
Her ears caught a rumble, fainter than thunder, and the splash of
horses' hoofs--"it's too muddy for the motor ambulance," she
thought, mechanically. "They're using the old one," and her heart
contracting, twisting, a queer dryness in her throat, she opened
the door as they stopped, her hand shading the lamp against the
sudden inrush of wind and rain. "In there, through the parlor,"
she said dully, indicating the new room and thinking, bitterly,
as she followed them, that now, when it could mean nothing to
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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 Hellenica by Xenophon: vi.; ib. "de Genio Socratis," V. vii. 6 A; Cor. Nep. "Pelop." 1.
[29] Lit. "Dicasts."
[30] Or, "that he was a magnificent malefactor." See Grote, "H. G."
vol. ix. p. 420, "the great wicked man" (Clarendon's epithets for
Cromwell); Plato, "Meno." 90 B; "Republic," 336 A, "a rich and
mighty man." See also Plut. "Ages." xxxii. 2, Agesilaus's
exclamation at sight of Epaminondas, {o tou megalopragmonos
anthropou}.
B.C. 382. As a result of these transactions the Lacedaemonians pressed
on the combined campaign against Olynthus with still greater
enthusiasm. They not only set out Teleutias as governor, but by their
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