| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lady Susan by Jane Austen: honourable and amiable intentions; her prudence and economy are exemplary,
her regard for Mr. Vernon equal even to HIS deserts; and her wish of
obtaining my sister's good opinion merits a better return than it has
received. As a mother she is unexceptionable; her solid affection for her
child is shown by placing her in hands where her education will be properly
attended to; but because she has not the blind and weak partiality of most
mothers, she is accused of wanting maternal tenderness. Every person of
sense, however, will know how to value and commend her well-directed
affection, and will join me in wishing that Frederica Vernon may prove more
worthy than she has yet done of her mother's tender care. I have now, my
dear father, written my real sentiments of Lady Susan; you will know from
Lady Susan |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte: them, and then he was to be helped to say them; if he made mistakes
in his little easy sums in arithmetic, they were to be shown him at
once, and the sum done for him, instead of his being left to
exercise his faculties in finding them out himself; so that, of
course, he took no pains to avoid mistakes, but frequently set down
his figures at random, without any calculation at all.
I did not invariably confine myself to these rules: it was against
my conscience to do so; but I seldom could venture to deviate from
them in the slightest degree, without incurring the wrath of my
little pupil, and subsequently of his mamma; to whom he would
relate my transgressions maliciously exaggerated, or adorned with
Agnes Grey |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Faraday as a Discoverer by John Tyndall: them to gain experimental ends, but he incessantly took them down,
as an architect removes the scaffolding when the edifice is complete.
'I cannot but doubt,' he says, 'that he who as a mere philosopher
has most power of penetrating the secrets of nature, and guessing by
hypothesis at her mode of working, will also be most careful for his
own safe progress and that of others, to distinguish the knowledge
which consists of assumption, by which I mean theory and hypothesis,
from that which is the knowledge of facts and laws.' Faraday
himself, in fact, was always 'guessing by hypothesis,' and making
theoretic divination the stepping-stone to his experimental results.
I have already more than once dwelt on the vividness with which he
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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 The Secret Places of the Heart by H. G. Wells: "We do," said Sir Richmond.
"And we have nothing but the old habits and ideas acquired in
the days of our assurance. There is a discord, a jarring."
The doctor pursued his train of thought. "A new, raw and
dreadful sense of responsibility for the universe.
Accompanied by a realization that the job is overwhelmingly
too big for us."
"We've got to stand up to the job," said Sir Richmond.
"Anyhow, what else is there to do? We MAY keep things
together. . . . "I've got to do my bit. And if only I could
hold myself at it, I could beat those fellows. But that's
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