| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Soul of a Bishop by H. G. Wells: horizons of life had vanished. The room with its folding doors
had fixed the scale. The wallpaper had smothered the Kingdom of
God; he had been, he felt, domestic; it had been an after-supper
talk. He had been put out, too, by the mention of Lady Sunderbund
and the case of Chasters....
In his study he consoled himself for this diminution of his
intention. It had taken him five years, he reflected, to get to
his present real sense of God's presence and to his personal
subordination to God's purpose. It had been a little absurd, he
perceived, to expect these girls to leap at once to a complete
understanding of the halting hints, the allusive indications of
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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 King of the Golden River by John Ruskin: servants without any wages till they would not work any more, and
then quarreled with them and turned them out of doors without paying
them. It wouuld have been very odd if with such a farm and such a
system of farming they hadn't got very rich; and very rich they DID
get. They generally contrived to keep their corn by them till it
was very dear, and then sell it for twice its value; they had heaps
of gold lying about on their floors, yet it was never known that
they had given so much as a penny or a crust in charity; they never
went to Mass, grumbled perpetually at paying tithes, and were, in a
word, of so cruel and grinding a temper as to receive from all those
with whom they had any dealings the nickname of the "Black
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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 Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland by Olive Schreiner: Sunday-school saying up a piece of Scripture he's learnt off by heart, and
got all ready beforehand, and he's not going to be stopped till he gets to
the end of it."
"What did he say," asked the Englishman.
"Oh, he started, How did we know this nigger was a spy at all; it would be
a terrible thing to kill him if we weren't quite sure; perhaps he was
hiding there because he was wounded. And then he broke out that, after
all, these niggers were men fighting for their country; we would fight
against the French if they came and took England from us; and the niggers
were brave men, 'please sir'--(every five minutes he'd pull his forelock,
and say, 'please sir!')--'and if we have to fight against them we ought to
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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 Reason Discourse by Rene Descartes: to render the account of them more worthy of perusal, omit, at least, almost
always the meanest and least striking of the attendant circumstances; hence
it happens that the remainder does not represent the truth, and that such as
regulate their conduct by examples drawn from this source, are apt to fall
into the extravagances of the knight-errants of romance, and to entertain
projects that exceed their powers.
I esteemed eloquence highly, and was in raptures with poesy; but I thought
that both were gifts of nature rather than fruits of study. Those in whom
the faculty of reason is predominant, and who most skillfully dispose their
thoughts with a view to render them clear and intelligible, are always the
best able to persuade others of the truth of what they lay down, though
Reason Discourse |
