The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad: the part of ignorance properly, and therefore was afraid to try.
It is also certain that he had brought some ready-made suspicions
with him, and that he viewed my politeness as a strange and
unnatural phenomenon. And yet how else could I have received him?
Not heartily! That was impossible for psychological reasons,
which I need not state here. My only object was to keep off
his inquiries. Surlily? Yes, but surliness might have provoked
a point-blank question. From its novelty to him and from its nature,
punctilious courtesy was the manner best calculated to restrain the man.
But there was the danger of his breaking through my defense bluntly.
I could not, I think, have met him by a direct lie, also for psychological
 The Secret Sharer |
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 Psychology of Revolution by Gustave le Bon: finally made them so intolerable that an insurrection broke out,
in the course of which the palace of the archbishop of Paris was
sacked.
The republicans as a party were not very dangerous, as the
Chamber sided with the king in the struggle against them. The
minister Guizot, who advocated a strong central power, declared
that two things were indispensable to government--``reason and
cannon.'' The famous statesman was surely somewhat deluded as to
the necessity or efficacy of reason.
Despite this strong central power, which in reality was not
strong, the republicans, and above all the Socialists, continued
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