| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Men of Iron by Howard Pyle: "I know that thou dost hold me in contempt," he mumbled.
"Out upon thee!" said the Earl, testily. "Thou dost tease me
beyond patience. I hold thee in contempt, forsooth! Why, look
thee, hadst thou been other than thou art, I would have had thee
whipped out of my house long since. Thinkest thou I would have
borne so patiently with another one of ye squires had such an one
held secret meeting with my daughter and niece, and tampered, as
thou hast done, with my household, sending through one of my
people that letter? Go to; thou art a fool, Myles Falworth!"
Myles stood staring at the Earl without making an effort to
speak. The words that he had heard suddenly flashed, as it were,
Men of Iron |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Cavalry General by Xenophon: [24] Like Pheidon, in the fragment of Mnesimachus's play "The Breeder
of Horses," ap. Athen. See Courier, ib. p. 55.
[25] See "Anab." IV. iv. 4; "Horsemanship," vi. 12.
With a view to keeping a firm seat on every sort of ground, it may be
perhaps be thought a little irksome to be perpetually marching out,
when there is no war;[26] but all the same, I would have you call your
men together and impress upon them the need to train themselves, when
they ride into the country to their farms, or elsewhere, by leaving
the high road and galloping at a round pace on ground of every
description.[27] This method will be quite as beneficial to them as
the regular march out, and at the same time not produce the same sense
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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 Twelve Stories and a Dream by H. G. Wells: and marked his points with it--"and in this precious phial is
the power to think twice as fast, move twice as quickly, do twice
as much work in a given time as you could otherwise do."
"But is such a thing possible?"
"I believe so. If it isn't, I've wasted my time for a year. These
various preparations of the hypophosphites, for example, seem
to show that something of the sort . . . Even if it was only one
and a half times as fast it would do."
"It WOULD do," I said.
"If you were a statesman in a corner, for example, time rushing up
against you, something urgent to be done, eh?"
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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 At the Sign of the Cat & Racket by Honore de Balzac: "Very well, then let men of genius stop at home and not get married.
What! A man of genius is to make his wife miserable? And because he is
a genius it is all right! Genius, genius! It is not so very clever to
say black one minute and white the next, as he does, to interrupt
other people, to dance such rigs at home, never to let you know which
foot you are to stand on, to compel his wife never to be amused unless
my lord is in gay spirits, and to be dull when he is dull."
"But, mother, the very nature of such imaginations----"
"What are such 'imaginations'?" Madame Guillaume went on, interrupting
her daughter again. "Fine ones his are, my word! What possesses a man
that all on a sudden, without consulting a doctor, he takes it into
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