| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 2 by Alexis de Toqueville: will present a very different spectacle from that which we have
just described; and we may readily conclude that, if ambition
becomes great whilst the conditions of society are growing equal,
it loses that quality when they have grown so. As wealth is
subdivided and knowledge diffused, no one is entirely destitute
of education or of property; the privileges and disqualifications
of caste being abolished, and men having shattered the bonds
which held them fixed, the notion of advancement suggests itself
to every mind, the desire to rise swells in every heart, and all
men want to mount above their station: ambition is the universal
feeling.
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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 Koran: Verily, this your nation is one nation; and I am your Lord, so serve
me.
But they cut up their affair amongst themselves; they all shall
return to us; and he who acts and he who is a believer, there is no
denial of his efforts, for, verily, we will write them down for him.
There is a ban upon a city which we have destroyed that they shall
not return, until Yagug and Magug are let out, and they from every
hummock shall glide forth.
And the true promise draws nigh, and lo! they are staring-the eyes
of those who misbelieve! O, woe is us! we were heedless of this,
nay, we were wrong-doers!
The Koran |
