| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Psychology of Revolution by Gustave le Bon: New interests arise, the economic competition between nation and
nation increases in severity, the working-classes are bestirring
themselves, and on all sides we see the birth of formidable
problems which the harangues of the politicians will never
resolve.
Among these new problems one of the most complicated will be the
problem of the conflict between labour and capital. It is
becoming acute even in such a country of tradition as England.
Workingmen are ceasing to respect the collective contracts which
formerly constituted their charter, strikes are declared for
insignificant motives, and unemployment and pauperism are
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from An Inland Voyage by Robert Louis Stevenson: nationality. He flatters himself he is indifferent honest; yet he
is rarely taken for anything better than a spy, and there is no
absurd and disreputable means of livelihood but has been attributed
to him in some heat of official or popular distrust. . . .
For the life of me I cannot understand it. I too have been knolled
to church, and sat at good men's feasts; but I bear no mark of it.
I am as strange as a Jack Indian to their official spectacles. I
might come from any part of the globe, it seems, except from where
I do. My ancestors have laboured in vain, and the glorious
Constitution cannot protect me in my walks abroad. It is a great
thing, believe me, to present a good normal type of the nation you
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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 Reason Discourse by Rene Descartes: provided only we abstain from accepting the false for the true, and
always preserve in our thoughts the order necessary for the deduction
of one truth from another. And I had little difficulty in determining
the objects with which it was necessary to commence, for I was already
persuaded that it must be with the simplest and easiest to know, and,
considering that of all those who have hitherto sought truth in the sciences,
the mathematicians alone have been able to find any demonstrations, that is,
any certain and evident reasons, I did not doubt but that such must have been
the rule of their investigations. I resolved to commence, therefore, with the
examination of the simplest objects, not anticipating, however, from this any
other advantage than that to be found in accustoming my mind to the love and
Reason Discourse |
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: even when he set a house on fire by putting a lighted match to a
mosquito-curtain, and clapped his hands for joy to see the blaze. At
sixteen years he was a tall, strong lad; but in mind he remained always at
the happy age of two, and therefore continued to play with very small
children. The bigger children of the neighborhood, from four to seven years
old, did not care to play with him, because he could not learn their songs
and games. His favorite toy was a broomstick, which he used as a
hobby-horse; and for hours at a time he would ride on that broomstick, up
and down the slope in front of my house, with amazing peals of laughter.
But at last he became troublesome by reason of his noise; and I had to tell
him that he must find another playground. He bowed submissively, and then
Kwaidan |
