| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Marie by H. Rider Haggard: "Hans," I said, "I am going to pretend to kill you, and then you must
lie quite still out there like one dead. Even if the aasvogels settle
on you, you must lie quite still, so that I may see whence they come and
how they settle."
The Hottentot did not take at all kindly to this suggestion. Indeed, he
flatly refused to obey me, giving sundry good reasons. He said that
this kind of rehearsal was ill-omened; that coming events have a way of
casting their shadow before, and he did not wish to furnish the event.
He said that the Zulus declared that the sacred aasvogels of Hloma
Amabutu were as savage as lions, and that when once they saw a man down
they would tear him to pieces, dead or living. In short, Hans and I
Marie |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Twice Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne: meet for a secret chamber, far less for a public street."
"Hold thy peace, Roger Williams!" answered Endicott, imperiously.
"My spirit is wiser than thine for the business now in hand. I
tell ye, fellow-exiles, that Charles of England, and Laud, our
bitterest persecutor, arch-priest of Canterbury, are resolute to
pursue us even hither. They are taking counsel, saith this
letter, to send over a governor-general, in whose breast shall be
deposited all the law and equity of the land. They are minded,
also, to establish the idolatrous forms of English Episcopacy; so
that, when Laud shall kiss the Pope's toe, as cardinal of Rome,
he may deliver New England, bound hand and foot, into the power
Twice Told Tales |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas: strange as it would needs have appeared to her father. To
tell the truth, there was in all this some selfish hope to
hear from Gryphus that his daughter was ill.
Except on extraordinary occasions, Rosa never came during
the day. Cornelius therefore did not really expect her as
long as the day lasted. Yet his sudden starts, his listening
at the door, his rapid glances at every little noise towards
the grated window, showed clearly that the prisoner
entertained some latent hope that Rosa would, somehow or
other, break her rule.
At the second visit of Gryphus, Cornelius, contrary to all
The Black Tulip |
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: determine the present welfare, and, as I believe, the future success and
modification of every inhabitant of this world. Still less do we know of
the mutual relations of the innumerable inhabitants of the world during the
many past geological epochs in its history. Although much remains obscure,
and will long remain obscure, I can entertain no doubt, after the most
deliberate study and dispassionate judgment of which I am capable, that the
view which most naturalists entertain, and which I formerly
entertained--namely, that each species has been independently created--is
erroneous. I am fully convinced that species are not immutable; but that
those belonging to what are called the same genera are lineal descendants
of some other and generally extinct species, in the same manner as the
On the Origin of Species |
