| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Schoolmistress and Other Stories by Anton Chekhov: standing for a while by the engine, Yasha saunters lazily to the
station; here he looks at the eatables in the refreshment bar,
reads aloud some quite uninteresting notice, and goes back
slowly to the cattle van. His face expresses neither boredom nor
desire; apparently he does not care where he is, at home, in the
van, or by the engine.
Towards evening the train stops near a big station. The lamps
have only just been lighted along the line; against the blue
background in the fresh limpid air the lights are bright and pale
like stars; they are only red and glowing under the station
roof, where it is already dark. All the lines are loaded up with
The Schoolmistress and Other Stories |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Crowd by Gustave le Bon: steam-power and of railways, the realisation of these inventions
would have been impossible, or would have been achieved at the
cost of revolutions and repeated massacres. It is fortunate for
the progress of civilisation that the power of crowds only began
to exist when the great discoveries of science and industry had
already been effected.
5. THE MORALITY OF CROWDS.
Taking the word "morality" to mean constant respect for certain
social conventions, and the permanent repression of selfish
impulses, it is quite evident that crowds are too impulsive and
too mobile to be moral. If, however, we include in the term
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: I had lost a day or two in my reckoning. A little after this, my
ink began to fail me, and so I contented myself to use it more
sparingly, and to write down only the most remarkable events of my
life, without continuing a daily memorandum of other things.
The rainy season and the dry season began now to appear regular to
me, and I learned to divide them so as to provide for them
accordingly; but I bought all my experience before I had it, and
this I am going to relate was one of the most discouraging
experiments that I made.
I have mentioned that I had saved the few ears of barley and rice,
which I had so surprisingly found spring up, as I thought, of
Robinson Crusoe |
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 Cruise of the Jasper B. by Don Marquis: "I have opened my heart to you, as I have never done to anyone
before. And now I put myself into your hands. But, oh, take
care--for it is something in me better than myself that I give
you to deal with! And you can cripple it forever, because I love
you and I shall listen to you. Shall I fight him?"
She had listened, mute and immobile, and as he spoke the red sun
made a sudden glory of her hair. She leaned towards him, and it
was as if the spirit of all the man's lifelong, foolish, romantic
musings were in her eyes and on her face.
"Fight him!" she said. "And kill him!"
And then her head was on his shoulder, and his arms were about
|
