| 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: with their own pollen, and the fourth was subsequently fertilised by the
pollen of a compound hybrid descended from three other and distinct
species: the result was that 'the ovaries of the three first flowers soon
ceased to grow, and after a few days perished entirely, whereas the pod
impregnated by the pollen of the hybrid made vigorous growth and rapid
progress to maturity, and bore good seed, which vegetated freely.' In a
letter to me, in 1839, Mr. Herbert told me that he had then tried the
experiment during five years, and he continued to try it during several
subsequent years, and always with the same result. This result has, also,
been confirmed by other observers in the case of Hippeastrum with its
sub-genera, and in the case of some other genera, as Lobelia, Passiflora
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 Several Works by Edgar Allan Poe: be made. The whole company, indeed, seemed now deeply to feel that
in the costume and bearing of the stranger neither wit nor
propriety existed. The figure was tall and gaunt, and shrouded
from head to foot in the habiliments of the grave. The mask which
concealed the visage was made so nearly to resemble the countenance
of a stiffened corpse that the closest scrutiny must have had
difficulty in detecting the cheat. And yet all this might have
been endured, if not approved, by the mad revellers around. But
the mummer had gone so far as to assume the type of the Red Death.
His vesture was dabbled in blood--and his broad brow, with all
the features of the face, was besprinkled with the scarlet horror.
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Mansion by Henry van Dyke: adventures
and triumphs would have made a far richer, more imposing history,
full of contacts with the great events and personages of the
time.
But somehow or other he did not care to speak much about it,
walking on that wide heavenly moorland, under that tranquil,
sunless arch of blue, in that free air of perfect peace, where
the light
was diffused without a shadow, as if the spirit of life in all
things
were luminous.
|
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 Child of Storm by H. Rider Haggard: mysteriously disappeared from the veld on which they were accustomed to
graze. They were lost; or perhaps they had felt the urgent need of
trekking from Zululand back to a more peaceful country. I sent all the
hunters I had with me to look for them, only Scowl and I remaining at
the wagons, which in those disturbed times I did not like to leave
unguarded.
Four days went by, a week went by, and no sign of either hunters or
oxen. Then at last a message, which reached me in some roundabout
fashion, to the effect that the hunters had found the oxen a long way
off, but on trying to return to Nodwengu had been driven by some of the
Usutu--that is, by Cetewayo's party--across the Tugela into Natal,
Child of Storm |
