| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Crowd by Gustave le Bon: the most profound transformations.[7]
[7] The novelty of this proposition being still considerable and
history being quite unintelligible without it, I devoted four
chapters to its demonstration in my last book ("The Psychological
Laws of the Evolution of Peoples"). From it the reader will see
that, in spite of fallacious appearances, neither language,
religion, arts, or, in a word, any element of civilisation, can
pass, intact, from one people to another.
Environment, circumstances, and events represent the social
suggestions of the moment. They may have a considerable
influence, but this influence is always momentary if it be
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Alexandria and her Schools by Charles Kingsley: who can yet welcome smilingly and joyfully the fresh thoughts of others;
who keeps unwearied his faith in God's government of the universe, in
God's continual education of the human race; who draws around him the
young and the sanguine, not merely to check their rashness by his wise
cautions, but to inspirit their sloth by the memories of his own past
victories; who hands over, without envy or repining, the lamp of truth
to younger runners than himself, and sits contented by, bidding the new
generation God speed along the paths untrodden by him, but seen afar off
by faith. A few such old persons have I seen, both men and women; in
whom the young heart beat pure and fresh, beneath the cautious and
practised brain of age, and gray hairs which were indeed a crown of
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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 Amy Foster by Joseph Conrad: grown less springy of step, heavier in body, less
keen of eye. Imagination, no doubt; but it seems
to me now as if the net of fate had been drawn
closer round him already.
"One day I met him on the footpath over the
Talfourd Hill. He told me that 'women were fun-
ny.' I had heard already of domestic differences.
People were saying that Amy Foster was begin-
ning to find out what sort of man she had married.
He looked upon the sea with indifferent, unseeing
eyes. His wife had snatched the child out of his
Amy Foster |
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 Hermione's Little Group of Serious Thinkers by Don Marquis: polish she was using?
"It's QUITE the latest thing! For finger nails, too,
you know. That delicate rose pink, with just
the touch of creaminess in it! It's the creamy
tint that's new, you know. Isn't it simply
wonderful?"
KULTUR, AND THINGS
Do you know, Kultur isn't the same thing at
all as culture . . . FANCY!
When we took it up -- Kultur, I mean yes,
we took it up in quite a serious way the other
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