| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tanglewood Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne: affirmed, that, many years before, in a distant country, he had
heard a rumor about a white bull, which came swimming across
the sea with a child on his back, dressed up in flowers that
were blighted by the sea water. He did not know what had become
of the child or the bull; and Cadmus suspected, indeed, by a
queer twinkle in the mariner's eyes, that he was putting a joke
upon him, and had never really heard anything about the matter.
Poor Cadmus found it more wearisome to travel alone than to
bear all his dear mother's weight, while she had kept him
company. His heart, you will understand, was now so heavy that
it seemed impossible, sometimes, to carry it any farther. But
Tanglewood Tales |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Eryxias by Platonic Imitator: ashamed if I were present and did not do what I could to prevent your
difference. And I should do the same if you were quarrelling about any
other art and were likely, unless you agreed on the point in dispute, to
part as enemies instead of as friends. But now, when we are contending
about a thing of which the usefulness continues during the whole of life,
and it makes an enormous difference whether we are to regard it as
beneficial or not,--a thing, too, which is esteemed of the highest
importance by the Hellenes:--(for parents, as soon as their children are,
as they think, come to years of discretion, urge them to consider how
wealth may be acquired, since by riches the value of a man is judged):--
When, I say, we are thus in earnest, and you, who agree in other respects,
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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 In the South Seas by Robert Louis Stevenson: one here,' he said anxiously. Altogether the Black Douglas pleased
us much; and as we heard fresh details of the king's uneasiness,
and saw for ourselves that all the weapons in the summer parlour
had been hid, we watched with the more admiration the cause of all
this anxiety rolling on his big legs, with his big smiling face,
apparently unarmed, and certainly unattended, through the hostile
town. The Red Douglas, pot-bellied Kuma, having perhaps heard word
of the debauch, remained upon his fief; his vassals thus came
uncommanded to the feast, and swelled the following of Karaiti.
FRIDAY, JULY 26. - At night in the dark, the singers of Makin
paraded in the road before our house and sang the song of the
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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 Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin: casarita, several of which I afterwards observed at work.
It is rather curious to find how incapable these birds must
be of acquiring any notion of thickness, for although they
were constantly flitting over the low wall, they continued
vainly to bore through it, thinking it an excellent bank for
their nests. I do not doubt that each bird, as often as it
came to daylight on the opposite side, was greatly surprised
at the marvellous fact.
I have already mentioned nearly all the mammalia common
in this country. Of armadilloes three species occur
namely, the Dasypus minutus or _pichy_, the D. villosus or
The Voyage of the Beagle |
