| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Essays of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: books, in particular a sort of Catholic MONTHLY VISITOR on the doings
of Our Lady of Lourdes. I remember one Sunday, when I was walking in
the country, that I fell on a hamlet and found all the inhabitants,
from the patriarch to the baby, gathered in the shadow of a gable at
prayer. One strapping lass stood with her back to the wall and did
the solo part, the rest chiming in devoutly. Not far off, a lad lay
flat on his face asleep among some straw, to represent the worldly
element.
Again, this people is eager to proselytise; and the postmaster's
daughter used to argue with me by the half-hour about my heresy,
until she grew quite flushed. I have heard the reverse process going
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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 War and the Future by H. G. Wells: of the meanest of diplomatic intelligences. A peace that will
restore competitive armaments has now become a less desirable
prospect for everyone than a continuation of the war. Things
were bad enough before, when the land forces were still in a
primitive phase of infantry, cavalry and artillery, and when the
only real race to develop monsters and destructors was for sea
power. But the race for sea power before 1914 was mere child's
play to the breeding of engineering monstrosities for land
warfare that must now follow any indeterminate peace settlement.
I am no blind believer in the wisdom of mankind, but I cannot
believe that men are so insensate and headstrong as to miss the
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