| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Faraday as a Discoverer by John Tyndall: equatorially in the magnetic field; while in magnetic crystals the
line along which the attraction is a maximum sets from pole to pole.
Faraday had said that the magne-crystallic force was neither
attraction nor repulsion. Thus far he was right. It was neither
taken singly, but it was both. By the combination of the doctrine
of diamagnetic polarity with these differential attractions and
repulsions, and by paying due regard to the character of the
magnetic field, every fact brought to light in the domain of
magne-crystallic action received complete explanation. The most
perplexing of those facts were shown to result from the action of
mechanical couples, which the proved polarity both of magnetism and
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Time Machine by H. G. Wells: saw the black central shadow of the eclipse sweeping towards me.
In another moment the pale stars alone were visible. All else
was rayless obscurity. The sky was absolutely black.
`A horror of this great darkness came on me. The cold, that
smote to my marrow, and the pain I felt in breathing, overcame
me. I shivered, and a deadly nausea seized me. Then like a
red-hot bow in the sky appeared the edge of the sun. I got off
the machine to recover myself. I felt giddy and incapable of
facing the return journey. As I stood sick and confused I saw
again the moving thing upon the shoal--there was no mistake now
that it was a moving thing--against the red water of the sea. It
The Time Machine |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Adam Bede by George Eliot: performance of "My love's a rose without a thorn," had gradually
assumed a rather deafening and complex character. Tim, thinking
slightly of David's vocalization, was impelled to supersede that
feeble buzz by a spirited commencement of "Three Merry Mowers,"
but David was not to be put down so easily, and showed himself
capable of a copious crescendo, which was rendering it doubtful
whether the rose would not predominate over the mowers, when old
Kester, with an entirely unmoved and immovable aspect, suddenly
set up a quavering treble--as if he had been an alarum, and the
time was come for him to go off.
The company at Alick's end of the table took this form of vocal
Adam Bede |
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 American Notes by Rudyard Kipling: enlightened and made aware that they also were the heirs of all
the ages, and civilized after all. There appeared before me an
affable stranger of prepossessing appearance, with a blue and an
innocent eye. Addressing me by name, he claimed to have met me
in New York, at the Windsor, and to this claim I gave a qualified
assent. I did not remember the fact, but since he was so certain
of it, why, then--I waited developments.
"And what did you think of Indiana when you came through?" was
the next question.
It revealed the mystery of previous acquaintance and one or two
other things. With reprehensible carelessness my friend of the
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