| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin: level, and the continents areas of elevation. But have we any right to
assume that things have thus remained from eternity? Our continents seem
to have been formed by a preponderance, during many oscillations of level,
of the force of elevation; but may not the areas of preponderant movement
have changed in the lapse of ages? At a period immeasurably antecedent to
the silurian epoch, continents may have existed where oceans are now spread
out; and clear and open oceans may have existed where our continents now
stand. Nor should we be justified in assuming that if, for instance, the
bed of the Pacific Ocean were now converted into a continent, we should
there find formations older than the silurian strata, supposing such to
have been formerly deposited; for it might well happen that strata which
On the Origin of Species |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Scarecrow of Oz by L. Frank Baum: who knew him -- and perhaps it was the reason why he so
often got into difficulties, or found himself lost.
To-day, as he wandered here and there, over hill and
down dale, he missed Trot and Cap'n Bill, of whom he was
fond, but nevertheless he was not unhappy. The birds sang
merrily and the wildflowers were beautiful and the breeze
had a fragrance of new-mown hay
"The only bad thing about this country is its King," he
reflected; "but the country isn't to blame for that."
A prairie-dog stuck its round head out of a mound of
earth and looked at the boy with bright eyes.
The Scarecrow of Oz |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Glaucus/The Wonders of the Shore by Charles Kingsley: before the day in which it was said, "Let us make man in our image,
after our likeness." To think that the whole human race, its joys
and its sorrows, its virtues and its sins, its aspirations and its
failures, has been rushing out of eternity and into eternity again,
as Arjoon in the Bhagavad Gita beheld the race of men issuing from
Kreeshna's flaming mouth, and swallowed up in it again, "as the
crowds of insects swarm into the flame, as the homeless streams
leap down into the ocean bed," in an everlasting heart-pulse whose
blood is living souls - and all that while, and ages before that
mystery began, that humble coral, unnoticed on the dark sea-floor,
has been "continuing as it was at the beginning," and fulfilling
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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 Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne: christian-names--I have no thoughts of treading upon Francis the First--nor
in the affair of the nose--upon Francis the Ninth--nor in the character of
my uncle Toby--of characterizing the militiating spirits of my country--the
wound upon his groin, is a wound to every comparison of that kind--nor by
Trim--that I meant the duke of Ormond--or that my book is wrote against
predestination, or free-will, or taxes--If 'tis wrote against any thing,--
'tis wrote, an' please your worships, against the spleen! in order, by a
more frequent and a more convulsive elevation and depression of the
diaphragm, and the succussations of the intercostal and abdominal muscles
in laughter, to drive the gall and other bitter juices from the gall-
bladder, liver, and sweet-bread of his majesty's subjects, with all the
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