| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Statesman by Plato: touched. Ought we not rather to wonder at the natural strength of the
political bond? For States have endured all this, time out of mind, and
yet some of them still remain and are not overthrown, though many of them,
like ships at sea, founder from time to time, and perish and have perished
and will hereafter perish, through the badness of their pilots and crews,
who have the worst sort of ignorance of the highest truths--I mean to say,
that they are wholly unaquainted with politics, of which, above all other
sciences, they believe themselves to have acquired the most perfect
knowledge.
YOUNG SOCRATES: Very true.
STRANGER: Then the question arises:--which of these untrue forms of
Statesman |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton: change in his appearance. He had thickened, coarsened, settled
down into the enclosing flesh. But she noted this insensibly:
her one conscious thought was that, now she was face to face with
him, she must not let him escape till he had heard her. Every
pulse in her body throbbed with the urgency of her message.
She went up to him as he drew back. "I must speak to you," she
said.
Arment hesitated, red and stammering. Julia glanced at the
footman, and her look acted as a warning. The instinctive
shrinking from a "scene" predominated over every other impulse,
and Arment said slowly: "Will you come this way?"
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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 Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: des Lupeaulx on receiving his note, and found him dressing. Without
laying down his razor, the general-secretary cast upon his subordinate
the glance of a general issuing an order.
"Are we alone?" he asked.
"Yes, monsieur."
"Very good. March on Rabourdin; forward! steady! Of course you kept a
copy of that paper?"
"Yes."
"You understand me? Inde iroe! There must be a general hue and cry
raised against him. Find some way to start a clamor--"
"I could get a man to make a caricature, but I haven't five hundred
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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 Aeroplanes and Dirigibles of War by Frederick A. Talbot: each complete in itself, and each containing a small balloon
inflated with hydrogen. It was sub-division as practised in
connection with vessels ploughing the water applied to aerial
craft, the purpose being somewhat the same. As a ship of the
seas will keep afloat so long as a certain number of its
subdivisions remain watertight, so would the Zeppelin keep aloft
if a certain number of the gas compartments retained their
charges of hydrogen. There were no fewer than seventeen of these
gas-balloons arranged in a single line within the envelope.
Beneath the hull and extending the full length of the latter was
a passage which not only served as a corridor for communication
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