| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche: land, that which Germans take a pride in, he once defined the
famous German turn of mind as "Indulgence towards its own and
others' weaknesses." Was he wrong? it is characteristic of
Germans that one is seldom entirely wrong about them. The German
soul has passages and galleries in it, there are caves, hiding-
places, and dungeons therein, its disorder has much of the charm
of the mysterious, the German is well acquainted with the bypaths
to chaos. And as everything loves its symbol, so the German loves
the clouds and all that is obscure, evolving, crepuscular, damp,
and shrouded, it seems to him that everything uncertain,
undeveloped, self-displacing, and growing is "deep". The German
Beyond Good and Evil |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Coxon Fund by Henry James: exhibition might be on the part of a girl perceptibly so able to
think things out I found it great sport to forecast. It would have
been exciting to be approached by her, appealed to by her for
advice; but I prayed to heaven I mightn't find myself in such a
predicament. If there was really a present rigour in the situation
of which Gravener had sketched for me the elements, she would have
to get out of her difficulty by herself. It wasn't I who had
launched her and it wasn't I who could help her. I didn't fail to
ask myself why, since I couldn't help her, I should think so much
about her. It was in part my suspense that was responsible for
this; I waited impatiently to see whether she wouldn't have told
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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 Profits of Religion by Upton Sinclair: In every public library in England and many in America you will
find an assortment of pamphlets published by these organizations,
and scholarly volumes endorsed by them, in which the stock
misrepresentations of Socialism are perpetuated. Some of these
writings are brutal--setting forth the ethics of exploitation in
the manner of the Rev. Thomas Malthus, the English clergyman who
supplied for capitalist depredation a basis in pretended natural
science. Said this shepherd of Jesus:
A man who is born into a world already possessed, if he cannot
get subsistence from his parents, and if society does not want
his labor, has no claim of right to the smallest portion of food,
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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 Flower Fables by Louisa May Alcott: there, who folded their shadowy garments round them, and turned
scornfully away from all the rest. These and many others
little Annie saw, which had come from her own heart, and taken form
before her eyes.
When first she saw them, they were small and weak; but as she looked
they seemed to grow and gather strength, and each gained a
strange power over her. She could not drive them from her sight,
and they grew ever stronger, darker, and more unlovely to her eyes.
They seemed to cast black shadows over all around, to dim the
sunshine, blight the flowers, and drive away all bright and lovely
things; while rising slowly round her Annie saw a high, dark wal],
Flower Fables |
