| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from In Darkest England and The Way Out by General William Booth: child's capacities would be discovered and could be cultivated.
Instead of coming out of school, or going away from apprenticeship,
with the most precious part of life for ever gone so far as learning
is concerned, chained to some pursuit for which there is no
predilection, and which promises nothing higher than mediocrity if not
failure--the work for which the mind was peculiarly adapted and for
which, therefore, it would have a natural capacity, would not only have
been discovered, but the bent of the inclination cultivated, and the
life's work chosen accordingly.
It is not for me to attempt any reform of our School system on this
model. But I do think that I may be allowed to test the theory by its
In Darkest England and The Way Out |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Silverado Squatters by Robert Louis Stevenson: already famous or infamous, a centre of pistol-shots: and
another who, if not yet known to rumour, will fill a column
of the Sunday paper when he comes to hang - a burly, thick-
set, powerful Chinese desperado, six long bristles upon
either lip; redolent of whiskey, playing cards, and pistols;
swaggering in the bar with the lowest assumption of the
lowest European manners; rapping out blackguard English oaths
in his canorous oriental voice; and combining in one person
the depravities of two races and two civilizations. For all
his lust and vigour, he seemed to look cold upon me from the
valley of the shadow of the gallows. He imagined a vain
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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 A treatise on Good Works by Dr. Martin Luther: tell the extent of this vice in Christendom? God says in the
lxxxii. Psalm, "How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the
persons of the wicked? Judge the matter of the poor and
fatherless, demand justice for the poor and needy; deliver the
poor and rid the forsaken out of the hand of the wicked." But it
is not done, and therefore the text continues: "They know not,
neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness"; that is,
the truth they do not see, but they stop at the reputation of the
great, however unrighteous they are; and do not consider the
poor, however righteous they are.
XXX. See, here would be many good works. For the greater portion
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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 Sons of the Soil by Honore de Balzac: abbe's resentment to such a pitch that he made a will disinheriting
Jean-Francois Niseron in favor of Arsene Pichard.
In 1823 Rigou, perhaps out of a sense of gratitude, still blew the
fire with an air-cane, and left the bellows hanging to the screw.
Madame Niseron, idolizing her daughter, did not long survive her.
Mother and child died in 1794. The old abbe, too, was dead, and
citizen Rigou took charge of Arsene's affairs by marrying her. A
former convert in the monastery, attached to Rigou as a dog is to his
master, became the groom, gardener, herdsman, valet, and steward of
the sensual Harpagon. Arsene Rigou, the daughter, married in 1821
without dowry to the prosecuting-attorney, inheriting something of her
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