| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Stories From the Old Attic by Robert Harris: fly on its own through the air. Don't you see that? This is
against the laws of nature--it violates the law of gravity."
"Well," said the traveler, "perhaps there is another law,
or perhaps there is a higher law than the law of gravity,
which, when it is understood, will explain how planes can fly."
"That's just what I'd expect a religious fanatic to say,"
said a man who had been listening in. "Science can jump
into the trash as far as you religious types are concerned."
"Not at all," said the traveler. "But your science is not
perfect. You do not yet know everything about everything, what
is possible and what is not possible."
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death by Patrick Henry: to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery!
Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston!
The war is inevitable--and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come.
It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace--
but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps
from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms!
Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle?
What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear,
or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?
Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take;
but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!
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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 Woman and Labour by Olive Schreiner: of life, removes them immeasurably from certain types of the primitive
male; the same movement equally removes the new male from the old female.
The sexual tragedy of modern life lies, not in the fact that woman as such
is tending to differ fundamentally from man as such; but that, in the
unassorted confusion of our modern life, it is continually the modified
type of man or woman who is thrown into the closest personal relations with
the antiquated type of the opposite sex; that between father and daughter,
mother and son, brother and sister, husband and wife, may sometimes be
found to intervene not merely years, but even centuries of social
evolution.
It is not man as man who opposes the attempt of woman to readjust herself
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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 Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau by Honore de Balzac: worthy people; he therefore thought it advisable to prepare their
minds.
"You are going to see," he said to Pillerault and the two ladies, "a
thorough original, who hides his methods under a fearfully bad style
of manners; from a very inferior position he has raised himself up by
intelligence. He will acquire better manners through his intercourse
with bankers. You may see him on the boulevard, or on a cafe tippling,
disorderly, betting at billiards, and think him a mere idler; but he
is not; he is thinking and studying all the time to keep industry
alive by new projects."
"I understand that," said Birotteau; "I got my great ideas when
Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau |
