| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Herland by Charlotte Gilman: Also, they worked out a system of intensive agriculture surpassing
anything I ever heard of, with the very forests all reset with
fruit- or nut-bearing trees.
Do what they would, however, there soon came a time when they
were confronted with the problem of "the pressure of population"
in an acute form. There was really crowding, and with it,
unavoidably, a decline in standards.
And how did those women meet it?
Not by a "struggle for existence" which would result in an
everlasting writhing mass of underbred people trying to get
ahead of one another--some few on top, temporarily, many constantly
Herland |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Maid Marian by Thomas Love Peacock: I have fought under the banners of Richard, and if, as you phrase it,
he guts exchequers, and sacks cities, it is not to win treasure
for himself, but to furnish forth the means of his greater
and more glorious aim."
"Misconceive me not, sir knight," said the friar. "We all love
and honour King Richard, and here is a deep draught to his health:
but I would show you, that we foresters are miscalled by opprobrious names,
and that our virtues, though they follow at humble distance, are yet
truly akin to those of Coeur-de-Lion. I say not that Richard is a thief,
but I say that Robin is a hero: and for honour, did ever yet man,
miscalled thief, win greater honour than Robin? Do not all men grace
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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 Within the Tides by Joseph Conrad: schooner's boats would be awkward in the dark. There was the risk
of getting aground on some shallow patches. It would be best to
spend the rest of the night on board.
There was really no opposition. The professor smoking a pipe, and
very comfortable in an ulster buttoned over his tropical clothes,
was the first to speak from his long chair.
"Most excellent advice."
Next to him Miss Moorsom assented by a long silence. Then in a
voice as of one coming out of a dream -
"And so this is Malata," she said. "I have often wondered . . ."
A shiver passed through Renouard. She had wondered! What about?
Within the Tides |
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 Enoch Arden, &c. by Alfred Tennyson: Had you ill dreams?'
`O yes,' he said, `I dream'd
Of such a tide swelling toward the land,
And I from out the boundless outer deep
Swept with it to the shore, and enter'd one
Of those dark caves that run beneath the cliffs.
I thought the motion of the boundless deep
Bore through the cave, and I was heaved upon it
In darkness: then I saw one lovely star
Larger and larger. "What a world," I thought,
"To live in!" but in moving I found
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