| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tono Bungay by H. G. Wells: air. The framework was to be hollow like a bird's bones,
airtight, and the air pumped in or out, and the weight of fuel I
carried changed. I talked much and boasted to Cothope--whom I
suspected of scepticisms about this new type--of what it would
do, and it progressed--slowly. It progressed slowly because I
was restless and uncertain. At times I would go away to London
to snatch some chance of seeing Beatrice there, at times nothing
but a day of gliding and hard and dangerous exercise would
satisfy me. And now in the newspapers, in conversation, in
everything about me, arose a new invader of my mental states.
Something was happening to the great schemes of my uncle's
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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 $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories by Mark Twain: And they all said:
"It's so--you've proved your theory, and suffering humanity owes
you a great debt from henceforth," and they crowded around him,
and wrung his hand cordially and thankfully, and praised him.
But I hardly saw or heard these things, for I ran at once to my
little darling, and snuggled close to it where it lay, and licked
the blood, and it put its head against mine, whimpering softly,
and I knew in my heart it was a comfort to it in its pain and
trouble to feel its mother's touch, though it could not see me.
Then it dropped down, presently, and its little velvet nose rested
upon the floor, and it was still, and did not move any more.
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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 Richard III by William Shakespeare: But for my brother not a man would speak;
Nor I, ungracious, speak unto myself
For him, poor soul. The proudest of you all
Have been beholding to him in his life;
Yet none of you would once beg for his life.
O God, I fear thy justice will take hold
On me, and you, and mine, and yours, for this!
Come, Hastings, help me to my closet. Ah, poor Clarence!
Exeunt some with KING and QUEEN
GLOUCESTER. This is the fruits of rashness. Mark'd you not
How that the guilty kindred of the Queen
Richard III |
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 Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn: quality of the ant-mind;-- no human being, as now constituted, could
cultivate a mental habit so impeccably practical as that of the ant. But
this superlatively practical mind is incapable of moral error. It would be
difficult, perhaps, to prove that the ant has no religious ideas. But it is
certain that such ideas could not be of any use to it. The being incapable
of moral weakness is beyond the need of "spiritual guidance."
Only in a vague way can we conceive the character of ant-society, and the
nature of ant-morality; and to do even this we must try to imagine some yet
impossible state of human society and human morals. Let us, then, imagine a
world full of people incessantly and furiously working,-- all of whom seem
to be women. No one of these women could be persuaded or deluded into
Kwaidan |
