| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift: being granted, there will remain an hundred and seventy thousand
breeders. I again subtract fifty thousand, for those women who
miscarry, or whose children die by accident or disease within the
year. There only remain an hundred and twenty thousand children
of poor parents annually born. The question therefore is, How
this number shall be reared, and provided for? which, as I have
already said, under the present situation of affairs, is utterly
impossible by all the methods hitherto proposed. For we can
neither employ them in handicraft or agriculture; we neither
build houses, (I mean in the country) nor cultivate land: they
can very seldom pick up a livelihood by stealing till they arrive
A Modest Proposal |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Agesilaus by Xenophon: armaments of Persia. But the brow of their general was lit with joy as
gaily he bade the ambassadors take back this answer to Tissaphernes:
"I hold myself indebted to your master for the perjury whereby he has
obtained to himself the hostility of heaven, and made the gods
themselves allies of Hellas." And so without further pause he
published a general order to his soldiers to pack their baggage and
prepare for active service; and to the several cities which lay on the
line of march to Caria, the order sped to have their markets in
readiness; while to the men of Ionia and the Aeolid and the Hellespont
he sent despatches bidding them send their contingents to Ephesus to
join in the campaign.
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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 The Ball at Sceaux by Honore de Balzac: in salt; and the third brother, faithful to his plebeian doctrines,
married Mademoiselle Grossetete, the only daughter of the Receiver-
General at Bourges. The three sisters-in-law and the two brothers-in-
law found the high sphere of political bigwigs, and the drawing-rooms
of the Faubourg Saint-Germain, so full of charm and of personal
advantages, that they united in forming a little court round the
overbearing Emilie. This treaty between interest and pride was not,
however, so firmly cemented but that the young despot was, not
unfrequently, the cause of revolts in her little realm. Scenes, which
the highest circles would not have disowned, kept up a sarcastic
temper among all the members of this powerful family; and this,
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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 Europeans by Henry James: "Oh, no," said Clifford, honestly distressed. "I never thought
such a thing as that."
"Are you very sure? I am convinced that your father does,
and your sisters. They say to each other that here I am on my
good behavior, but that over there--married by the left hand--
I associate with light women. "
"Oh, no," cried Clifford, energetically, "they don't say such things
as that to each other!"
"If they think them they had better say them," the Baroness rejoined.
"Then they can be contradicted. Please contradict that whenever you hear it,
and don't be afraid of coming to see me on account of the company I keep.
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