| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Lily of the Valley by Honore de Balzac: for this interview, or it might cause an increase in her sufferings--
death would be a blessed release from them."
I wrung the hand of the good man, whose look and voice soothed the
pangs of others without sharpening them.
"We are praying God to help her," he continued; "for she, so saintly,
so resigned, so fit to die, has shown during the last few weeks a
horror of death; for the first time in her life she looks at others
who are full of health with gloomy, envious eyes. This aberration
comes less, I think, from the fear of death than from some inward
intoxication,--from the flowers of her youth which ferment as they
wither. Yes, an evil angel is striving against heaven for that
The Lily of the Valley |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Crisis in Russia by Arthur Ransome: in actually getting their feet clear of the morass of industrial
decay in which they are at present involved. Such a
programme has actually been decided upon-a
programme the definite object of which is to reconcile the
workers to work not simply hand to mouth, each for himself,
but to concentrate first on those labors which will eventually
bring their reward in making other labors easier and
improving the position as a whole.
Early this year a comparatively unknown Bolshevik called Gusev,
to whom nobody had attributed any particular
intelligence, wrote, while busy on the staff of an army on the
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