| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Common Sense by Thomas Paine: they know not US, and are become the gods of their creators.
The Speech hath one good quality, which is, that it is not calculated
to deceive, neither can we, even if we would, be deceived by it.
Brutality and tyranny appear on the face of it. It leaves us at no loss:
And every line convinces, even in the moment of reading, that He,
who hunts the woods for prey, the naked and untutored Indian,
is less a Savage than the King of Britain.
Sir John Dalrymple, the putative father of a whining jesuitical piece,
fallaciously called, "THE ADDRESS OF THE PEOPLE OF _ENGLAND_
TO THE INHABITANTS OF _AMERICA_," hath, perhaps, from a vain supposition,
that the people here were to be frightened at the pomp and description
Common Sense |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Peter Pan by James M. Barrie: to crawl rather than climb. Neither knew that the other was
coming. Each feeling for a grip met the other's arm: in
surprise they raised their heads; their faces were almost
touching; so they met.
Some of the greatest heroes have confessed that just before
they fell to [began combat] they had a sinking [feeling in the
stomach]. Had it been so with Peter at that moment I would admit
it. After all, he was the only man that the Sea-Cook had
feared. But Peter had no sinking, he had one feeling only,
gladness; and he gnashed his pretty teeth with joy. Quick
as thought he snatched a knife from Hook's belt and was about to
Peter Pan |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Phaedrus by Plato: was the inspiration of Apollo, the second that of Dionysus, the third that
of the Muses, the fourth that of Aphrodite and Eros. In the description of
the last kind of madness, which was also said to be the best, we spoke of
the affection of love in a figure, into which we introduced a tolerably
credible and possibly true though partly erring myth, which was also a hymn
in honour of Love, who is your lord and also mine, Phaedrus, and the
guardian of fair children, and to him we sung the hymn in measured and
solemn strain.
PHAEDRUS: I know that I had great pleasure in listening to you.
SOCRATES: Let us take this instance and note how the transition was made
from blame to praise.
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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 Moon-Face and Other Stories by Jack London: pruning and tacking the climbers on the porch, with my mouth full of nails,
and Lloyd following me about and lending a hand now and again, we fell to
discussing the mythical race of invisible people, that strange and vagrant
people the traditions of which have come down to us. Lloyd warmed to the talk
in his nervous, jerky fashion, and was soon interrogating the physical
properties and possibilities of invisibility. A perfectly black object, he
contended, would elude and defy the acutest vision.
"Color is a sensation," he was saying. "It has no objective reality. Without
light, we can see neither colors nor objects themselves. All objects are black
in the dark, and in the dark it is impossible to see them. If no light strikes
upon them, then no light is flung back from them to the eye, and so we have no
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