| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay: intervals of quiescence. When these gushes came, the whole lake
broke out in an eruption of spouts.
He realised that the ideas passing from him did not arise in his
intellect, but had their source in the fathomless depths of his will.
He could not decide what character they should have, but he was able
to force them out, or retard them, by the exercise of his volition.
At first nothing changed around him. Then the moon grew dimmer, and
a strange, new radiance began to illuminate the landscape. It
increased so imperceptibly that it was some time before he recognised
it as the Muspel-light which he had seen in the Wombflash Forest. He
could not give it a colour, or a name, but it filled him with a sort
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy: safely on board the British schooner.
As if to confirm this last supposition, the dull boom of a gun
was heard from out at sea.
"The schooner, citoyen," said Desgas, quietly; "she's off."
It needed all Chauvelin's nerve and presence of mind not to
give way to a useless and undignified access of rage. There was no
doubt now, that once again, that accursed British head had completely
outwitted him. How he had contrived to reach the hut, without being
seen by one of the thirty soldiers who guarded the spot, was more than
Chauvelin could conceive. That he had done so before the thirty men
had arrived on the cliff was, of course, fairly clear, but how he had
The Scarlet Pimpernel |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Vendetta by Honore de Balzac: penny that is not the result of his munificence. Is it not gratitude
to him to assist his faithful soldiers? Take the sums you need as
indifferently as I offer them. It is only money!" she added, in a tone
of contempt. "Now, as for friends,--those you shall have."
She raised her head proudly, and her eyes shone with dazzling
brilliancy.
"The head which falls to-morrow before a dozen muskets will save
yours," she went on. "Wait till the storm is over; you can then escape
and take service in foreign countries if you are not forgotten here;
or in the French army, if you are."
In the comfort that women give there is always a delicacy which has
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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 Proposed Roads To Freedom by Bertrand Russell: being driven into them by destitution. The community
would then have a strong economic motive
for finding ways of diminishing the disagreeableness
of these exceptional trades.
There would still have to be money, or something
analogous to it, in any community such as we are
imagining. The Anarchist plan of a free distribution
of the total produce of work in equal shares
does not get rid of the need for some standard of
exchange value, since one man will choose to take his
share in one form and another in another. When
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