| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Profits of Religion by Upton Sinclair: system. These gentlemen make the world their home--or, as
Shakespeare puts it, their oyster. They know how to fit
themselves to all environments; they are Catholics in Rome and
Vienna, country gentlemen in London, bons vivants in Paris,
democrats in Chicago, Socialists in Petrograd, and Hebrews
wherever they are.
And of course, in buying the English government, these new
classes have bought the English Church. Skeptics and men of the
world as they are, they know that they must have a Religion. They
have read the story of the French revolution, and the shadow of
the guillotine is always over their thoughts; they see the giant
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Selected Writings of Guy De Maupassant by Guy De Maupassant: them; they had heard voices in front of them, and so I sent six
men and a sergeant on ahead, and waited.
"All at once a shrill cry, a woman's cry, pierced through the
heavy silence of the snow, and in a few minutes they brought back
two prisoners, an old man and a girl, whom I questioned in a low
voice. They were escaping from the Prussians, who had occupied
their house during the evening, and who had got drunk. The father
had become alarmed on his daughter's account, and, without even
telling their servants, they had made their escape into the
darkness. I saw immediately that they belonged to the upper
classes, and, as I should have done in any case, I invited them
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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 United States Constitution: when called into the actual Service of the United States;
he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer
in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to
the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power
to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States,
except in Cases of impeachment.
He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the
Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators
present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice
and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public
Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other
The United States Constitution |
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 On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin: along its whole line of descent, are supposed to have been but little
modified, and they yet form a single genus. But this genus, though much
isolated, will still occupy its proper intermediate position; for F
originally was intermediate in character between A and I, and the several
genera descended from these two genera will have inherited to a certain
extent their characters. This natural arrangement is shown, as far as is
possible on paper, in the diagram, but in much too simple a manner. If a
branching diagram had not been used, and only the names of the groups had
been written in a linear series, it would have been still less possible to
have given a natural arrangement; and it is notoriously not possible to
represent in a series, on a flat surface, the affinities which we discover
On the Origin of Species |
