| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Faraday as a Discoverer by John Tyndall: the conclusion that there was no connection of the force with
attractive or repulsive influences.' With the most refined ingenuity
he shows that, under certain circumstances, the magne-crystallic
force can cause the centre of gravity of a highly magnetic body to
retreat from the poles, and the centre of gravity of a highly
diamagnetic body to approach them. His experiments root his mind
more and more firmly in the conclusion that 'neither attraction nor
repulsion causes the set, or governs the final position' of the
crystal in the magnetic field. That the force which does so is
therefore 'distinct in its character and effects from the magnetic
and diamagnetic forms of force. On the other hand,' he continues,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum: the egg when the hen suddenly cried:
"Stop!"
"What's wrong?" asked the Scarecrow.
"Don't take the egg unless the King will allow me to enter the palace
and guess as the others have done," said Billina.
"Pshaw!" returned the King. "You're only a hen. How could you guess
my enchantments?"
"I can try, I suppose," said Billina. "And, if I fail, you will have
another ornament."
"A pretty ornament you'd make, wouldn't you?" growled the King. "But
you shall have your way. It will properly punish you for daring to
Ozma of Oz |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Woman and Labour by Olive Schreiner: not only would the race become extinct, but if it depended for its
continuance on any approach to sex affection on the part of the women, that
death would certainly be accepted by all, as the lesser of two evils.
Hardly less marked would be the sexual division if, in place of cultured
and developed females, we imagine males of the same highly evolved class
thrown into contact with the lowest form of primitive females. A Darwin, a
Schiller, a Keats, though all men capable of the strongest sex emotion and
of the most durable sex affections, would probably be untouched by any
emotion but horror, cast into the company of a circle of Bushmen females
with greased bodies and twinkling eyes, devouring the raw entrails of
slaughtered beasts.
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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 She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith: very close indeed--(attempting to kiss her).
MISS HARDCASTLE. Pray, sir, keep your distance. One would think you
wanted to know one's age, as they do horses, by mark of mouth.
MARLOW. I protest, child, you use me extremely ill. If you keep me at
this distance, how is it possible you and I can ever be acquainted?
MISS HARDCASTLE. And who wants to be acquainted with you? I want no
such acquaintance, not I. I'm sure you did not treat Miss Hardcastle,
that was here awhile ago, in this obstropalous manner. I'll warrant
me, before her you looked dashed, and kept bowing to the ground, and
talked, for all the world, as if you was before a justice of peace.
MARLOW. (Aside.) Egad, she has hit it, sure enough! (To her.) In
She Stoops to Conquer |
