| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Pagan and Christian Creeds by Edward Carpenter: explanation of the community of rites and customs between
the Old and New World, and this without assuming
in any way that Atlantis (if it existed) was the
original and SOLE cradle of the human race.[3] Anyhow it
is clear that these origins of human culture must be of
extreme antiquity, and that it would not be wise to be
put off the track of the investigation of a possible common
source merely by that fact of antiquity.
[1] See A. Lang's Myth, Ritual and Religion, vol. ii.
[2] See Hastings, Encycl. Religion and Ethics, art. "Ethnology."
[3] E. J. Payne, History of the New World called America (vol. i,
Pagan and Christian Creeds |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 1 by Alexis de Toqueville: The United States; Influence Which It Exercises Upon Society
More difficult to conceive the political activity which pervades
the United States than the freedom and equality which reign there
- The great activity which perpetually agitates the legislative
bodies is only an episode to the general activity - Difficult for
an American to confine himself to his own business - Political
agitation extends to all social intercourse - Commercial activity
of the Americans partly attributable to this cause - Indirect
advantages which society derives from a democratic government.
On passing from a country in which free institutions are
established to one where they do not exist, the traveller is
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