| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Crowd by Gustave le Bon: to the masses under this form. These imagelike ideas are not
connected by any logical bond of analogy or succession, and may
take each other's place like the slides of a magic-lantern which
the operator withdraws from the groove in which they were placed
one above the other. This explains how it is that the most
contradictory ideas may be seen to be simultaneously current in
crowds. According to the chances of the moment, a crowd will
come under the influence of one of the various ideas stored up in
its understanding, and is capable, in consequence, of committing
the most dissimilar acts. Its complete lack of the critical
spirit does not allow of its perceiving these contradictions.
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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 War in the Air by H. G. Wells: largest, richest, in many respects the most splendid, and in
some, the wickedest city the world had ever seen. She was the
supreme type of the City of the Scientific Commercial Age; she
displayed its greatness, its power, its ruthless anarchic
enterprise, and its social disorganisation most strikingly and
completely. She had long ousted London from her pride of place
as the modern Babylon, she was the centre of the world's finance,
the world's trade, and the world's pleasure; and men likened her
to the apocalyptic cities of the ancient prophets. She sat
drinking up the wealth of a continent as Rome once drank the
wealth of the Mediterranean and Babylon the wealth of the east.
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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 Lemorne Versus Huell by Elizabeth Drew Stoddard: its ripples till Aunt Eliza was reached. She sent for William,
whose only excuse was "dampness."
"Uxbridge knew my carriage, of course," she said, with a
complacent voice.
"He knew me," I replied.
"You do not look like the Huells."
"I look precisely like the young woman to whom he was introduced
by Mr. Van Horn."
"Oh ho!"
"He thought it unsafe for me to come alone under William's
charge."
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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 The Bride of Lammermoor by Walter Scott: necks. I am not aware that he formed any distinct wish on the
subject, but I have no reason to think that his grief in either
case would have been altogether inconsolable. This chance,
however, also disappeared; for Lady Ashton, though insensible to
fear, began to see the ridicule of running a race with a visitor
of distinction, the goal being the portal of her own castle, and
commanded her coachman, as they approached the avenue, to slacken
his pace, and allow precedence to the stranger's equipage; a
command which he gladly obeyed, as coming in time to save his
honour, the horses of the Marquis's carriage being better, or, at
least, fresher than his own. He restrained his pace, therefore,
The Bride of Lammermoor |
