| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Turn of the Screw by Henry James: I might easily put an end to my predicament by getting
away altogether. Here was my chance; there was no one to stop me;
I could give the whole thing up--turn my back and retreat.
It was only a question of hurrying again, for a few preparations,
to the house which the attendance at church of so many of
the servants would practically have left unoccupied. No one,
in short, could blame me if I should just drive desperately off.
What was it to get away if I got away only till dinner?
That would be in a couple of hours, at the end of which--
I had the acute prevision--my little pupils would play at
innocent wonder about my nonappearance in their train.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Blix by Frank Norris:
"I don't care how old we are; I think that trout will weigh two
pounds."
When they were calm again, they returned to their fishing. The
morning passed, and it was noon before they were aware of it. By
half-past twelve Blix had caught three trout, though the first was
by far the heaviest. Condy had not had so much as a bite. At one
o'clock they rowed ashore and had lunch under a huge live-oak in a
little amphitheatre of manzanita.
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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 Varieties of Religious Experience by William James: significance, now that it is once here? The answer to the one
question is given in an existential judgment or proposition. The
answer to the other is a proposition of value, what the Germans
call a Werthurtheil, or what we may, if we like, denominate a
spiritual judgment. Neither judgment can be deduced immediately
from the other. They proceed from diverse intellectual
preoccupations, and the mind combines them only by making them
first separately, and then adding them together.
In the matter of religions it is particularly easy to distinguish
the two orders of question. Every religious phenomenon has its
history and its derivation from natural antecedents. What is
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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 Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin: about the business. However, as he kept the post-office, it was
imagined he had better opportunities of obtaining news; his paper
was thought a better distributer of advertisements than mine,
and therefore had many, more, which was a profitable thing to him,
and a disadvantage to me; for, tho' I did indeed receive and send
papers by the post, yet the publick opinion was otherwise, for what
I did send was by bribing the riders, who took them privately,
Bradford being unkind enough to forbid it, which occasion'd some
resentment on my part; and I thought so meanly of him for it, that,
when I afterward came into his situation, I took care never to imitate it.
I had hitherto continu'd to board with Godfrey, who lived in part
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin |
