| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Research Magnificent by H. G. Wells: matter to be. While Benham went from Moscow and returned, and
travelled hither and thither, and involved himself more and more in
the endless tangled threads of the revolutionary movement in Russia,
Prothero was lost to all those large issues in the development of
his personal situation. He contributed nothing to Benham's thought
except attempts at discouragement. He reiterated his declaration
that all the vast stress and change of Russian national life was
going on because it was universally disregarded. "I tell you, as I
told you before, that nobody is attending. You think because all
Moscow, all Russia, is in the picture, that everybody is concerned.
Nobody is concerned. Nobody cares what is happening. Even the men
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Herodias by Gustave Flaubert: expiring of love in his embrace. With half-closed eyes and quivering
form, she caused mysterious undulations to flow downward over her
whole body, like rippling waves, while her face remained impassive and
her twinkling feet still moved in their intricate steps.
Vitellius compared her to Mnester, the famous pantomimist. Aulus was
overcome with faintness. The tetrarch watched her, lost in a
voluptuous reverie, and thought no more of the real Herodias. In fancy
he saw her again as she appeared when she had dwelt among the
Sadducees. Then the vision faded.
But this beautiful thing before him was no vision. The dancer was
Salome, the daughter of Herodias, who for many months her mother had
Herodias |
