| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Mayflower Compact: Sovereigne Lord, King James of England, France, and Ireland,
the eighteenth, and of Scotland, the fiftie-fourth,
Anno. Domini, 1620.
Mr. John Carver Mr. Stephen Hopkins
Mr. William Bradford Digery Priest
Mr. Edward Winslow Thomas Williams
Mr. William Brewster Gilbert Winslow
Isaac Allerton Edmund Margesson
Miles Standish Peter Brown
John Alden Richard Bitteridge
John Turner George Soule
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Phaedo by Plato: the same in both, and would also avoid the monstrous absurdity of supposing
that the greater man is greater by reason of the head, which is small. You
would be afraid to draw such an inference, would you not?
Indeed, I should, said Cebes, laughing.
In like manner you would be afraid to say that ten exceeded eight by, and
by reason of, two; but would say by, and by reason of, number; or you would
say that two cubits exceed one cubit not by a half, but by magnitude?-for
there is the same liability to error in all these cases.
Very true, he said.
Again, would you not be cautious of affirming that the addition of one to
one, or the division of one, is the cause of two? And you would loudly
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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 Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad: I had slept, after all, and I was so frightened that I shouted,
"This way! I am here, steward," as though he had been miles away.
He put down the tray on the table next the couch and only then said,
very quietly, "I can see you are here, sir." I felt him give me a keen look,
but I dared not meet his eyes just then. He must have wondered why I
had drawn the curtains of my bed before going to sleep on the couch.
He went out, hooking the door open as usual.
I heard the crew washing decks above me. I knew I would have
been told at once if there had been any wind. Calm, I thought,
and I was doubly vexed. Indeed, I felt dual more than ever.
The steward reappeared suddenly in the doorway.
The Secret Sharer |
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 Faraday as a Discoverer by John Tyndall: particles as polarized, and he concluded that the force of induction
is propagated from particle to particle of the dielectric from the
inner sphere to the outer one. This power of propagation possessed
by insulators he called their 'Specific Inductive Capacity.'
Faraday visualizes with the utmost clearness the state of his
contiguous particles; one after another they become charged, each
succeeding particle depending for its charge upon its predecessor.
And now he seeks to break down the wall of partition between
conductors and insulators. 'Can we not,' he says, 'by a gradual
chain of association carry up discharge from its occurrence in air
through spermaceti and water, to solutions, and then on to chlorides,
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