| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from In Darkest England and The Way Out by General William Booth: and I may therefore assume that all my readers are more or less cognizant
of the main outlines a "Darkest England." My slum officers are living in
the midst of it their reports are before me, and one day I may publish
some more detailed account of the actual facts of the social condition
of the Sunken Millions. But not now. All that must be taken as read.
I only glance at the subject in order to bring into clear relief the
salient points of our new Enterprise.
I have spoken of the houseless poor. Each of these represents a point
in the scale of human suffering below that of those who have still
contrived to keep a shelter over their heads. A home is a home, be it
ever so low; and the desperate tenacity with which the poor will cling
 In Darkest England and The Way Out |
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 Phaedo by Plato: Summon me then, he said, and I will be your Iolaus until the sun goes down.
I summon you rather, I rejoined, not as Heracles summoning Iolaus, but as
Iolaus might summon Heracles.
That will do as well, he said. But first let us take care that we avoid a
danger.
Of what nature? I said.
Lest we become misologists, he replied, no worse thing can happen to a man
than this. For as there are misanthropists or haters of men, there are
also misologists or haters of ideas, and both spring from the same cause,
which is ignorance of the world. Misanthropy arises out of the too great
confidence of inexperience;--you trust a man and think him altogether true
|