| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Crisis in Russia by Arthur Ransome: friends kept the artists in the right way, and received the
fullest explanation. The political section of the organization
works out the main idea and aim for each picture, which
covers the whole side of a wagon. This idea is then
submitted to a "collective" of artists, who are jointly
responsible for its realization in paint. The artists compete
with each other for a prize which is awarded for the best
design, the judges being the artists themselves. It is the art
of the poster, art with a purpose of the most definite kind.
The result is sometimes amusing, interesting, startling, but,
whatever else it does, hammers home a plain idea.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Margret Howth: A Story of To-day by Rebecca Harding Davis: He had sauntered out from the city for a morning walk,--not
through the hills, as Margret went, going home, but on the other
side, to the river, over which you could see the Prairie. We are
in Indiana, remember. The sunlight was pure that morning,
powerful, tintless, the true wine of life for body or spirit.
Stephen Holmes knew that, being a man of delicate animal
instincts, and so used it, just as he had used the dumb-bells in
the morning. All things were made for man, weren't they? He was
leaning against the door of the school-house,-- a red, flaunting
house, the daub on the landscape: but, having his back to it, he
could not see it, so through his half-shut eyes he suffered the
Margret Howth: A Story of To-day |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Case of the Golden Bullet by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: "Don't let them disturb you, my dear Muller; we will allow your
keenness all possible leeway here." The Head of Police spoke with
calm politeness, but Muller started and shivered. The emphasis on
the "here" showed him that even the head of the department had been
incensed at his suggestion that the beautiful Mrs. Kniepp had died
of her own free will. It had been his assertion of this which,
coming to the ears of the bereaved husband, had enraged and
embittered him, and had turned the power of his influence with the
high authorities against the detective. Muller knew how greatly he
had fallen from favour in the Police Department, and the words of
his respected superior showed him that he was still in disgrace.
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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 In the South Seas by Robert Louis Stevenson: him and is ever fresh; and when be has asked and meditates of
foreign countries, he looks up with a smile and reminds you, 'I got
POWER.' Nor is his delight only in the possession, but in the
exercise. He rejoices in the crooked and violent paths of kingship
like a strong man to run a race, or like an artist in his art. To
feel, to use his power, to embellish his island and the picture of
the island life after a private ideal, to milk the island
vigorously, to extend his singular museum - these employ
delightfully the sum of his abilities. I never saw a man more
patently in the right trade.
It would be natural to suppose this monarchy inherited intact
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