| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Thus Spake Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche: and rarer, than honesty.
Is this to-day not that of the populace? The populace however knoweth not
what is great and what is small, what is straight and what is honest: it
is innocently crooked, it ever lieth.
9.
Have a good distrust to-day ye, higher men, ye enheartened ones! Ye open-
hearted ones! And keep your reasons secret! For this to-day is that of
the populace.
What the populace once learned to believe without reasons, who could--
refute it to them by means of reasons?
And on the market-place one convinceth with gestures. But reasons make the
Thus Spake Zarathustra |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Collected Articles by Frederick Douglass: and inseparable from those of the negro.
The policy that emancipated and armed the negro--now seen to
have been wise and proper by the dullest--was not certainly more
sternly demanded than is now the policy of enfranchisement.
If with the negro was success in war, and without him failure,
so in peace it will be found that the nation must fall or flourish
with the negro.
Fortunately, the Constitution of the United States knows no distinction
between citizens on account of color. Neither does it know any difference
between a citizen of a State and a citizen of the United States.
Citizenship evidently includes all the rights of citizens,
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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 Underground City by Jules Verne: For a few minutes all went well, no accident seemed to threaten him,
when suddenly he heard the sound of a great rush of air from beneath;
and, looking down, he could dimly perceive through the gloom a broad
mass arising until it passed him, striking him as it went by.
It was an enormous bird--of what sort he could not see; it flew
upwards on mighty wings, then paused, hovered, and dashed fiercely
down upon Harry, who could only wield his knife in one hand.
He defended himself and the child as well as he could,
but the ferocious bird seemed to aim all its blows at him alone.
Afraid of cutting the cord, he could not strike it as he wished,
and the struggle was prolonged, while Harry shouted with all his
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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 Allan Quatermain by H. Rider Haggard: then the others woke up gasping, and were obliged to begin to
discard their clothes. Here Umslopogaas had the advantage, for
he did not wear any to speak of, except a moocha.
Hotter it grew, and hotter yet, till at last we could scarcely
breathe, and the perspiration poured out of us. Half an hour
more, and though we were all now stark naked, we could hardly
bear it. The place was like an antechamber of the infernal regions
proper. I dipped my hand into the water and drew it out almost
with a cry; it was nearly boiling. We consulted a little thermometer
we had -- the mercury stood at 123 degrees. From the surface
of the water rose a dense cloud of steam. Alphonse groaned out
Allan Quatermain |
