| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Glaucus/The Wonders of the Shore by Charles Kingsley: pursuit, owing, I doubt not, to the impulse given to it by the many
authors whose works I then recommended. I recommend them still;
though a swarm of other manuals and popular works have appeared
since, excellent in their way, and almost beyond counting. But all
honour to those, and above all to Mr. Gosse and Mr. Johns, who
first opened people's eyes to the wonders around them all day long.
Now, we have, in addition to amusing books on special subjects,
serials on Natural History more or less profound, and suited to
every kind of student and every grade of knowledge. I mention the
names of none. For first, they happily need no advertisement from
me; and next, I fear to be unjust to any one of them by
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin: there find formations older than the silurian strata, supposing such to
have been formerly deposited; for it might well happen that strata which
had subsided some miles nearer to the centre of the earth, and which had
been pressed on by an enormous weight of superincumbent water, might have
undergone far more metamorphic action than strata which have always
remained nearer to the surface. The immense areas in some parts of the
world, for instance in South America, of bare metamorphic rocks, which must
have been heated under great pressure, have always seemed to me to require
some special explanation; and we may perhaps believe that we see in these
large areas, the many formations long anterior to the silurian epoch in a
completely metamorphosed condition.
On the Origin of Species |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Aeneid by Virgil: The Trojan, not in stratagem unskill'd,
Sends his light horse before to scour the field:
Himself, thro' steep ascents and thorny brakes,
A larger compass to the city takes.
This news my scouts confirm, and I prepare
To foil his cunning, and his force to dare;
With chosen foot his passage to forelay,
And place an ambush in the winding way.
Thou, with thy Volscians, face the Tuscan horse;
The brave Messapus shall thy troops inforce
With those of Tibur, and the Latian band,
Aeneid |
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 Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake: Merrily, merrily to welcome in the year.
Little boy,
Full of joy;
Little girl,
Sweet and small;
Cock does crow,
So do you;
Merry voice,
Infant noise;
Merrily, merrily to welcome in the year.
Little lamb,
Songs of Innocence and Experience |
