| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Parmenides by Plato: at your service; proceed with your questions.'--The result may be summed up
as follows:--
1.a. One is not many, and therefore has no parts, and therefore is not a
whole, which is a sum of parts, and therefore has neither beginning,
middle, nor end, and is therefore unlimited, and therefore formless, being
neither round nor straight, for neither round nor straight can be defined
without assuming that they have parts; and therefore is not in place,
whether in another which would encircle and touch the one at many points;
or in itself, because that which is self-containing is also contained, and
therefore not one but two. This being premised, let us consider whether
one is capable either of motion or rest. For motion is either change of
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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 Crisis in Russia by Arthur Ransome: lack of men, is intimately connected with the lack of
transport, which keeps laborers ill fed, factories ill supplied
with material, and in this way keeps the towns incapable of
supplying the needs of the country, with the result that the
country is most unwilling to supply the needs of the town.
No Russian Government unwilling to allow Russia to
subside definitely to a lower level of civilization can do
otherwise than to concentrate upon the improvement of
transport. Labor in Russia must be used first of all for that,
in order to increase its own productivity. And, if purchase
of help from abroad is to be allowed, Russia must "control"
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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 Amazing Interlude by Mary Roberts Rinehart: bundle and carried it under his well arm. The other was almost useless.
The ambulance was still waiting outside, at the foot of the staircase.
There were voices and lights in the operating room, forward along the
tiled hall. Still in his night clothing, Henri got into the ambulance
and threw his uniform behind him. Then he got the car under way.
Outside the village he paused long enough to dress. His head was
amazingly clear. He had never felt so sure of himself before. As to
his errand he had no doubt whatever. Jean had learned that he had
crossed the channel. Therefore Jean had taken up his work - Jean, who
had but one eye and was as clumsy as a bear. The thought of Jean
crawling through the German trenches set him laughing until he ended
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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 Glaucus/The Wonders of the Shore by Charles Kingsley: manly mind as Mathematics and Metaphysics.
But how very lately have they attained that firm and honourable
standing ground! It is a question whether, even twenty years ago,
Geology, as it then stood, was worth troubling one's head about, so
little had been really proved. And heavy and uphill was the work,
even within the last fifteen years, of those who stedfastly set
themselves to the task of proving and of asserting at all risks,
that the Maker of the coal seam and the diluvial cave could not be
a "Deus quidam deceptor," and that the facts which the rock and the
silt revealed were sacred, not to be warped or trifled with for the
sake of any cowardly and hasty notion that they contradicted His
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