| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Research Magnificent by H. G. Wells: well, it did annex his body with only a few slight
incompatibilities, but it repudiated his hands and face. He had a
conspicuously old Gladstone bag and a conspicuously new despatch
case, and he had forgotten black ties and dress socks and a hair
brush. He arrived in the late afternoon, was met by Benham, in
tennis flannels, looking smartened up and a little unfamiliar, and
taken off in a spirited dog-cart driven by a typical groom. He met
his host and hostess at dinner.
Sir Godfrey was a rationalist and a residuum. Very much of him, too
much perhaps, had gone into the acquirement and perfect performance
of the caecal operation; the man one met in the social world was
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Concerning Christian Liberty by Martin Luther: does to us. But now, in the doctrine of men, we are taught only
to seek after merits, rewards, and things which are already ours,
and we have made of Christ a taskmaster far more severe than
Moses.
The Blessed Virgin beyond all others, affords us an example of
the same faith, in that she was purified according to the law of
Moses, and like all other women, though she was bound by no such
law and had no need of purification. Still she submitted to the
law voluntarily and of free love, making herself like the rest of
women, that she might not offend or throw contempt on them. She
was not justified by doing this; but, being already justified,
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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 Jungle by Upton Sinclair: year to write the book, and the author might say it had taken
thirty. Goethe said that every bon mot of his had cost a purse
of gold. What I outline here is a national, or rather
international, system for the providing of the material needs of
men. Since a man has intellectual needs also, he will work
longer, earn more, and provide for them to his own taste and in
his own way. I live on the same earth as the majority, I wear
the same kind of shoes and sleep in the same kind of bed; but I
do not think the same kind of thoughts, and I do not wish to pay
for such thinkers as the majority selects. I wish such things to
be left to free effort, as at present. If people want to listen
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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 The Iliad by Homer: captivity from you. May I lie dead under the barrow that is
heaped over my body ere I hear your cry as they carry you into
bondage."
He stretched his arms towards his child, but the boy cried and
nestled in his nurse's bosom, scared at the sight of his father's
armour, and at the horse-hair plume that nodded fiercely from his
helmet. His father and mother laughed to see him, but Hector took
the helmet from his head and laid it all gleaming upon the
ground. Then he took his darling child, kissed him, and dandled
him in his arms, praying over him the while to Jove and to all
the gods. "Jove," he cried, "grant that this my child may be even
The Iliad |
