| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Common Sense by Thomas Paine: to explain it in, will in a few years be looked upon as folly
and childishness--There was a time when it was proper,
and there is a proper time for it to cease.
Small islands not capable of protecting themselves,
are the proper objects for kingdoms to take under their care;
but there is something very absurd, in supposing a continent
to be perpetually governed by an island. In no instance hath
nature made the satellite larger than its primary planet,
and as England and America, with respect to each other,
reverses the common order of nature, it is evident they belong
to different systems; England to Europe, America to itself.
Common Sense |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from In Darkest England and The Way Out by General William Booth: this scheme is put forward by me from any interested motives by all
means let them refuse to contribute even by a single penny to what
would be, at least, one of the most shameless of shams. There may be
those who are able to imagine that men who have been literally martyred
in this cause have faced their death for the sake of the paltry coppers
they collected to keep body and soul together. Such may possibly find
no difficulty in persuading themselves that this is but another attempt
to raise money to augment that mythical fortune which I, who never yet
drew a penny beyond mere out-of-pocket expenses from the Salvation Army
funds, am supposed to be accumulating. From all such I ask only the
tribute of their abuse, assured that the worst they say of me is too
In Darkest England and The Way Out |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: lightless eyes, 'but I am going away from this.--I have carpology,'
said he (the use of the technical term showing how clear and accurate
his mental processes were even now). 'I thought the room was full of
live gold, and I got up to catch some of it.--To whom will all mine
go, I wonder? Not to the crown; I have left a will, look for it,
Grotius. La belle Hollandaise had a daughter; I once saw the girl
somewhere or other, in the Rue Vivienne, one evening. They call her
"La Torpille," I believe; she is as pretty as pretty can be; look her
up, Grotius. You are my executor; take what you like; help yourself.
There are Strasburg pies, there, and bags of coffee, and sugar, and
gold spoons. Give the Odiot service to your wife. But who is to have
Gobseck |
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 Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche: morality; he loves, on the contrary, to make a festival to his
virtue by a noble aloofness, while perhaps he says with
Montaigne: "What do I know?" Or with Socrates: "I know that I
know nothing." Or: "Here I do not trust myself, no door is open
to me." Or: "Even if the door were open, why should I enter
immediately?" Or: "What is the use of any hasty hypotheses? It
might quite well be in good taste to make no hypotheses at all.
Are you absolutely obliged to straighten at once what is crooked?
to stuff every hole with some kind of oakum? Is there not time
enough for that? Has not the time leisure? Oh, ye demons, can ye
not at all WAIT? The uncertain also has its charms, the Sphinx,
Beyond Good and Evil |
