| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Psychology of Revolution by Gustave le Bon: principles but also the special mentality which achieves their
success.
Describing this mentality when we were examining the Jacobin
spirit, we saw that it always endeavours to impose by force
illusions which it regards as the truth. The Jacobin spirit has
finally become so general in France and in other Latin countries
that it has affected all political parties, even the most
conservative. The bourgeoisie is strongly affected by it, and
the people still more so.
This increase of the Jacobin spirit has resulted in the fact that
political conceptions, institutions, and laws tend to impose
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Extracts From Adam's Diary by Mark Twain: told it she wouldn't give it. As already observed, I was not at
home when it first came, and she told me she found it in the woods.
It seems odd that it should be the only one, yet it must be so,
for I have worn myself out these many weeks trying to find another
one to add to my collection, and for this one to play with; for
surely then it would be quieter, and we could tame it more easily.
But I find none, nor any vestige of any; and strangest of all, no
tracks. It has to live on the ground, it cannot help itself;
therefore, how does it get about without leaving a track? I have
set a dozen traps, but they do no good. I catch all small animals
except that one; animals that merely go into the trap out 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 Life in the Iron-Mills by Rebecca Davis: She had not hoped he would say more; but the tired pain on her
mouth just then was bitterer than death. She took his passive
hand and kissed it.
"Hur'll never see Deb again!" she ventured, her lips growing
colder and more bloodless.
What did she say that for? Did he not know it? Yet he would
not be impatient with poor old Deb. She had trouble of her own,
as well as he.
"No, never again," he said, trying to be cheerful.
She stood just a moment, looking at him. Do you laugh at her,
standing there, with her hunchback, her rags, her bleared,
Life in the Iron-Mills |
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 Young Forester by Zane Grey: was once, where they buried the fellers as died with their boots on."
I stared, and even stretched my neck out of the window.
"Yes, old Dodge was sure lively," he continued, as our train passed on. "I
seen a little mix-up there myself in the early eighties. Five cow-punchers,
friends they was, had been visitin' town. One feller, playful-like, takes
another feller's quirt--that's a whip. An' the other feller, playful-like,
says, 'Give it back.' Then they tussles for it, an' rolls on the ground. I
was laughin', as was everybody, when, suddenly, the owner of the quirt
thumps his friend. Both cowboys got up, slow, an' watchin' of each other.
Then the first feller, who had started the play, pulls his gun. He'd hardly
flashed it when they all pulls guns, an' it was some noisy an' smoky. In
The Young Forester |
