| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Pivot of Civilization by Margaret Sanger: ladies and gentlemen who have assumed clever disguises and have gone
out to work--for a week or a month--among the proletariat. But can we
thus learn anything new of the fundamental problems of working men,
working women, working children? Something, perhaps, but not those
great central problems of Hunger and Sex. We have been told that only
those who themselves have suffered the pangs of starvation can truly
understand Hunger. You might come into the closest contact with a
starving man; yet, if you were yourself well-fed, no amount of
sympathy could give you actual insight into the psychology of his
suffering. This suggests an objective and a subjective approach to all
social problems. Whatever the weakness of the subjective (or, if you
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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 $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories by Mark Twain: The humorous story may be spun out to great length, and may wander
around as much as it pleases, and arrive nowhere in particular;
but the comic and witty stories must be brief and end with a point.
The humorous story bubbles gently along, the others burst.
The humorous story is strictly a work of art--high and delicate art--
and only an artist can tell it; but no art is necessary in telling
the comic and the witty story; anybody can do it. The art of telling
a humorous story--understand, I mean by word of mouth, not print--
was created in America, and has remained at home.
The humorous story is told gravely; the teller does his best
to conceal the fact that he even dimly suspects that there is
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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 From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne: "Is there any truth in this hypothesis?" asked Michel.
"None whatever," said Barbicane, "and the proof is, that the
moon has preserved no trace of the gaseous envelope which always
accompanies comets."
"But," continued Nicholl, "Before becoming the earth's satellite,
could not the moon, when in her perihelion, pass so near the sun
as by evaporation to get rid of all those gaseous substances?"
"It is possible, friend Nicholl, but not probable."
"Why not?"
"Because-- Faith I do not know."
"Ah!" exclaimed Michel, "what hundred of volumes we might make
From the Earth to the Moon |
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 Ursula by Honore de Balzac: with him. He can go to Paris and release Savinien himself,--for he
will have to go there to sell out his funds,--and he can bring the lad
back to you."
"Are you speaking of that little Minoret?"
"That little Minoret is eighty-three years old," said the abbe,
smiling. "My dear lady, do have a little Christian charity; don't
wound him,--he might be useful to you in other ways."
"What ways?"
"He has an angel in his house; a precious young girl--"
"Oh! that little Ursula. What of that?"
The poor abbe did not pursue the subject after these significant
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