| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Stories From the Old Attic by Robert Harris: "And as the Chinese say, 'The flies buzz in the wind, but men drink
their tea,'" added the one with glasses. "Here, son," he went on,
pointing again, "this is also a tree. Compare them and deduce
treehood by subtracting the anomalous from the universal."
"Certainly you have read Dohesius On the Nature of the Universe in
the last twenty-five years," the other philosopher said with some
indignation. "Don't you recall his dictum that 'a second example is
not an explanation'? How do you pretend to instruct the ignorance of
youth when you have never instructed yourself? 'The canvas remains
blank when the artist has no paint,' says Hugo de Brassus. Go back
to your books."
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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 Psychology of Revolution by Gustave le Bon: their service.
The foregoing conceptions are too novel as yet to have modified
the mentality of the historians. They will continue to attempt
to explain, by means of rational logic, a host of phenomena which
are foreign to it.
Events such as the Reformation, which overwhelmed France for a
period of fifty years, were in no wise determined by rational
influences. Yet rational influences are always invoked in
explanation, even in the most recent works. Thus, in the
General History of Messrs. Lavisse and Rambaud, we read the
following explanation of the Reformation:--
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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 The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare: In token of which duty, if he please,
My hand is ready; may it do him ease.
PETRUCHIO.
Why, there's a wench! Come on, and kiss me, Kate.
LUCENTIO.
Well, go thy ways, old lad, for thou shalt ha't.
VINCENTIO.
'Tis a good hearing when children are toward.
LUCENTIO.
But a harsh hearing when women are froward.
PETRUCHIO.
The Taming of the Shrew |
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 Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving: winging his blundering flight against him, the poor varlet was
ready to give up the ghost, with the idea that he was struck with
a witch's token. His only resource on such occasions, either to
drown thought or drive away evil spirits, was to sing psalm tunes
and the good people of Sleepy Hollow, as they sat by their doors
of an evening, were often filled with awe at hearing his nasal
melody, "in linked sweetness long drawn out," floating from the
distant hill, or along the dusky road.
Another of his sources of fearful pleasure was to pass long
winter evenings with the old Dutch wives, as they sat spinning by
the fire, with a row of apples roasting and spluttering along the
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow |
