| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Jungle by Upton Sinclair: of property and smug respectability, a divine sanction of all the
horrors and abominations of modern commercial civilization!
Jeweled images are made of him, sensual priests burn incense to
him, and modern pirates of industry bring their dollars, wrung
from the toil of helpless women and children, and build temples
to him, and sit in cushioned seats and listen to his teachings
expounded by doctors of dusty divinity--"
"Bravo!" cried Schliemann, laughing. But the other was in full
career--he had talked this subject every day for five years, and
had never yet let himself be stopped. "This Jesus of Nazareth!"
he cried. "This class-conscious working-man! This union
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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 Market-Place by Harold Frederic: a tremendous diplomatic swell, you know, Ambassador at
Vienna in his time, and Lord Lieutenant and all sorts
of things, but willing to gather in his five hundred a year,
all the same."
"Do you mean that YOU pay HIM five hundred pounds a year?"
asked the sister.
"Yes, I've got a live Markiss who works for me at ten
quid a week, and a few extras. The other Directors get
three hundred. This Lord Plowden is one of them--but I'll
tell you more about him later on. Then there's Watkin,
he's a small accountant Finsbury way; and Davidson,
The Market-Place |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from On Revenues by Xenophon: IV
I come to a new topic. I am persuaded that the establishment of the
silver mines on a proper footing[1] would be followed by a large
increase in wealth apart from the other sources of revenue. And I
would like, for the benefit of those who may be ignorant, to point out
what the capacity of these mines really is. You will then be in a
position to decide how to turn them to better account. It is clear, I
presume, to every one that these mines have for a very long time been
in active operation; at any rate no one will venture to fix the date
at which they first began to be worked.[2] Now in spite of the fact
that the silver ore has been dug and carried out for so long a time, I
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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 Sanitary and Social Lectures by Charles Kingsley: through their work in simpler and less civilised societies.
And here I stop to answer those who may say--as I have heard it
said--That a woman's intellect is not fit for business; that when
a woman takes to business, she is apt to do it ill, and
unpleasantly likewise, to be more suspicious, more irritable, more
grasping, more unreasonable, than regular men of business would
be: that--as I have heard it put--"a woman does not fight fair."
The answer is simple. That a woman's intellect is eminently
fitted for business is proved by the enormous amount of business
she gets through without any special training for it: but those
faults in a woman of which some men complain are simply the
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