| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin: from a few hundred feet to a mile; but the peaty soil dail
encroaches on the borders, and even forms islets whereve
a few fragments happen to lie close together. In a valle
south of Berkeley Sound, which some of our party calle
the "great valley of fragments," it was necessary to cros
an uninterrupted band half a mile wide, by jumping fro
one pointed stone to another. So large were the fragments
that being overtaken by a shower of rain, I readily foun
shelter beneath one of them.
Their little inclination is the most remarkable circumstance
in these "streams of stones." On the hill-sides I hav
The Voyage of the Beagle |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Two Poets by Honore de Balzac: life; every house is transparent, the solace of close friendships
which break no moral law is scarcely allowed; and such outrageously
scandalous constructions are put upon the most innocent human
intercourse, that many a woman's character is taken away without
cause. One here and there, weighed down by her unmerited punishment,
will regret that she has never known to the full the forbidden
felicity for which she is suffering. The world, which blames and
criticises with a superficial knowledge of the patent facts in which a
long inward struggle ends, is in reality a prime agent in bringing
such scandals about; and those whose voices are loudest in
condemnation of the alleged misconduct of some slandered woman never
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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 Kenilworth by Walter Scott: Varney, after a pause. "But observe, I know the world--and
answer me truly, canst thou be faithful?"
"Did you not know the world," answered Lambourne, "it were my
duty to say ay, without further circumstance, and to swear to it
with life and honour, and so forth. But as it seems to me that
your worship is one who desires rather honest truth than politic
falsehood, I reply to you, that I can be faithful to the gallows'
foot, ay, to the loop that dangles from it, if I am well used and
well recompensed--not otherwise."
"To thy other virtues thou canst add, no doubt," said Varney, in
a jeering tone, "the knack of seeming serious and religious, when
Kenilworth |
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 Eve and David by Honore de Balzac: "You want to gain time," he said at last, when Sechard had come to an
end. "How long do you want? Something like three or four months?"
"Oh! four months! that would be my salvation," exclaimed David. Petit-
Claud appeared to him as an angel.
"Very well. No one shall lay hands on any of your furniture, and no
one shall arrest you for four months----But it will cost you a great
deal," said Petit-Claud.
"Eh! what does that matter to me?" cried Sechard.
"You are expecting some money to come in; but are you sure of it?"
asked Petit-Claud, astonished at the way in which his client walked
into the toils.
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