The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Marie by H. Rider Haggard: skill. These had not failed me, although I knew that had it not been
for the inspiration of the Hottentot Hans (who sent it, I wonder?) they
would have been of no service at all. With all my thought and
experience, it had never occurred to me that the wonderful eyes of the
vultures would see the flash of the powder even through the pervading
sunlight, and swerve before the deadly bullet could reach them.
On that night I was indeed a hero in a small way. Even Henri Marais
thawed and spoke to me as a father might to his child, he who always
disliked me in secret, partly because I was an Englishman, partly
because I was everything to his daughter and he was jealous, and partly
for the reason that I stood in the path of his nephew, Hernan Pereira,
Marie |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Proposed Roads To Freedom by Bertrand Russell: Are his laws of historical development true? Second,
Is Socialism desirable? The second of these questions
is quite independent of the first. Marx professes
to prove that Socialism must come, but scarcely concerns
himself to argue that when it comes it will be
a good thing. It may be, however, that if it comes,
it will be a good thing, even though all Marx's arguments
to prove that it must come should be at fault.
In actual fact, time has shown many flaws in Marx's
theories. The development of the world has been
sufficiently like his prophecy to prove him a man of
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