| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche: and Goethe, the bold letting-go of the reins, the spiritual and
corporeal licentia morum in the exceptional cases of wise old
codgers and drunkards, with whom it "no longer has much danger."-
-This also for the chapter: "Morals as Timidity."
199. Inasmuch as in all ages, as long as mankind has existed,
there have also been human herds (family alliances, communities,
tribes, peoples, states, churches), and always a great number who
obey in proportion to the small number who command--in view,
therefore, of the fact that obedience has been most practiced and
fostered among mankind hitherto, one may reasonably suppose that,
generally speaking, the need thereof is now innate in every one,
Beyond Good and Evil |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Polity of Athenians and Lacedaemonians by Xenophon: meet together for united action, for the sea lies between them, and
the dominant power is master of the sea. And even if it were possible
for them to assemble in some single island unobserved, they would only
do so to perish by famine. And as to the states subject to Athens
which are not islanders, but situated on the continent, the larger are
held in check by need[3] and the small ones absolutely by fear, since
there is no state in existence which does not depend upon imports and
exports, and these she will forfeit if she does not lend a willing ear
to those who are masters by sea. In the next place, a power dominant
by sea can do certain things which a land power is debarred from
doing; as for instance, ravage the territory of a superior, since it
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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 Rezanov by Gertrude Atherton: little figure of the Bostonian, noted the utter in-
difference with which they were treated by the
Favorita of Presidio and Mission, he felt a sudden
rush of arrogance, a youthful tingling of nerves,
the same prophetic sense of imminent happiness and
power that his first contact with the light electrical
air and the beauty of the country had induced.
After all, he was but forty-two. Life on the whole
had been very kind to him. And, although he did
not realize it as yet, his frame, blighted by the rigors
of the past three years, was already sensible to a
Rezanov |
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 The Art of Writing by Robert Louis Stevenson: instant impression of poverty, flatness, and disenchantment.
The same lines delivered with the measured utterance of verse
would perhaps seem rich in variety. By the more summary
enunciation proper to prose, as to a more distant vision,
these niceties of difference are lost. A whole verse is
uttered as one phrase; and the ear is soon wearied by a
succession of groups identical in length. The prose writer,
in fact, since he is allowed to be so much less harmonious,
is condemned to a perpetually fresh variety of movement on a
larger scale, and must never disappoint the ear by the trot
of an accepted metre. And this obligation is the third
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