| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 2 by Alexis de Toqueville: the principle of equality, I did not point out, ere I conclude,
the general influence which these same opinions and sentiments
may exercise upon the government of human societies. To succeed
in this object I shall frequently have to retrace my steps; but I
trust the reader will not refuse to follow me through paths
already known to him, which may lead to some new truth.
The principle of equality, which makes men independent of
each other, gives them a habit and a taste for following, in
their private actions, no other guide but their own will. This
complete independence, which they constantly enjoy towards their
equals and in the intercourse of private life, tends to make them
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Faraday as a Discoverer by John Tyndall: In his subsequent researches 'On the absolute Quantity of
Electricity associated with the Particles or Atoms of matter,'
he endeavours to give an idea of the amount of electrical force
involved in the decomposition of a single grain of water. He is
almost afraid to mention it, for he estimates it at 800,000
discharges of his large Leyden battery. This, if concentrated in a
single discharge, would be equal to a very great flash of lightning;
while the chemical action of a single grain of water on four grains
of zinc would yield electricity equal in quantity to a powerful
thunderstorm. Thus his mind rises from the minute to the vast,
expanding involuntarily from the smallest laboratory fact till it
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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 Statesman by Plato: attention to common dialectical errors. The Eleatic stranger, here, as in
the Sophist, has no appropriate character, and appears only as the
expositor of a political ideal, in the delineation of which he is
frequently interrupted by purely logical illustrations. The younger
Socrates resembles his namesake in nothing but a name. The dramatic
character is so completely forgotten, that a special reference is twice
made to discussions in the Sophist; and this, perhaps, is the strongest
ground which can be urged for doubting the genuineness of the work. But,
when we remember that a similar allusion is made in the Laws to the
Republic, we see that the entire disregard of dramatic propriety is not
always a sufficient reason for doubting the genuineness of a Platonic
Statesman |
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 Glaucus/The Wonders of the Shore by Charles Kingsley: expand again, after a day or two of captivity, and will repay all
the trouble which it has cost. Troglodytes may be found, as I have
said already, in hundreds at Hastings, in similar situations to
that of Bellis; its only token, when the tide is down, being a
round dimple in the muddy sand which firs the lower cracks of
rocks.
But you will want more than these anemones, both for your own
amusement, and for the health of your tank. Microscopic animals
will breed, and will also die; and you need for them some such
scavenger as our poor friend Squinado, to whom you were introduced
a few pages back. Turn, then, a few stones which lie piled on each
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