| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Crisis in Russia by Arthur Ransome: country that develops to the end in this direction is a
country lost to the economic comity of Europe. And, as one
country follows another over the brink, so will the remaining
countries be faced by conditions of increasingly narrow
self-dependence, in fact by the very conditions which in
Russia, so far, have received their clearest, most forcible
illustration.
THE SHORTAGE OF MEN
In the preceding chapter I wrote of Russia's many wants, and
of the processes visibly at work, tending to make her
condition worse and not better. But I wrote of things, not
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen: occasion would be perfectly unnecessary? He is brother
to Mrs. John Dashwood--THAT must be recommendation enough
to her husband."
"But Mrs. John Dashwood would not much approve
of Edward's going into orders."
"Then I rather suspect that my interest would
do very little."
They were again silent for many minutes. At length
Lucy exclaimed with a deep sigh,
"I believe it would be the wisest way to put an end
to the business at once by dissolving the engagement.
Sense and Sensibility |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Phaedrus by Plato: to them--they neither hunger, nor thirst, but from the hour of their birth
are always singing, and never eating or drinking; and when they die they go
and inform the Muses in heaven who honours them on earth. They win the
love of Terpsichore for the dancers by their report of them; of Erato for
the lovers, and of the other Muses for those who do them honour, according
to the several ways of honouring them;--of Calliope the eldest Muse and of
Urania who is next to her, for the philosophers, of whose music the
grasshoppers make report to them; for these are the Muses who are chiefly
concerned with heaven and thought, divine as well as human, and they have
the sweetest utterance. For many reasons, then, we ought always to talk
and not to sleep at mid-day.
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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 The War in the Air by H. G. Wells: his jacket, cast the white sheet of the Desert Dervish on one
side, washed temperately, shaved, resumed the big cap and the fur
overcoat, and, much refreshed by these exercises, surveyed the
country below him.
It was indeed a spectacle of incredible magnificence. If perhaps
it was not so strange and magnificent as the sunlit cloudland of
the previous day, it was at any rate infinitely more interesting.
The air was at its utmost clearness and except to the south and
south-west there was not a cloud in the sky. The country was
hilly, with occasional fir plantations and bleak upland spaces,
but also with numerous farms, and the hills were deeply
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