| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence: Nothing made any sound. The trees stood like powerful beings, dim,
twilit, silent and alive. How alive everything was!
Night was drawing near again; she would have to go. He was avoiding
her.
But suddenly he came striding into the clearing, in his black oilskin
jacket like a chauffeur, shining with wet. He glanced quickly at the
hut, half-saluted, then veered aside and went on to the coops. There he
crouched in silence, looking carefully at everything, then carefully
shutting the hens and chicks up safe against the night.
At last he came slowly towards her. She still sat on her stool. He
stood before her under the porch.
Lady Chatterley's Lover |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Soul of Man by Oscar Wilde: Science as its methods. What it aims at is an Individualism
expressing itself through joy. This Individualism will be larger,
fuller, lovelier than any Individualism has ever been. Pain is not
the ultimate mode of perfection. It is merely provisional and a
protest. It has reference to wrong, unhealthy, unjust
surroundings. When the wrong, and the disease, and the injustice
are removed, it will have no further place. It will have done its
work. It was a great work, but it is almost over. Its sphere
lessens every day.
Nor will man miss it. For what man has sought for is, indeed,
neither pain nor pleasure, but simply Life. Man has sought to live
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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 Crisis in Russia by Arthur Ransome: in the same way. It was pointed out that in one year they
had succeeded in training 32,000 Red Commanders, that is
to say, officers from the working class itself, and that it was
not Utopian to hope and work for a similar output of
workmen specialists, technically trained, and therefore
themselves qualified for individual command in the factories.
Meanwhile there was nothing against the employment of
Political Commissars in the factories as formerly in the
regiments, to control in other than technical matters the
doings of the specialists. On the other hand, it was said that
the appointment of Commissars would tend to make
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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 Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane: through the leaves. From the edifice a tall lean-
ing tower of smoke went far into the sky.
Looking over their own troops, they saw
mixed masses slowly getting into regular form.
The sunlight made twinkling points of the bright
steel. To the rear there was a glimpse of a dis-
tant roadway as it curved over a slope. It was
crowded with retreating infantry. From all the
interwoven forest arose the smoke and bluster
of the battle. The air was always occupied by
a blaring.
The Red Badge of Courage |
