| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Kenilworth by Walter Scott: critical observation. She looked at him with, attention as he
stood before her unabashed, but with an air of the deepest
dejection.
"I cannot but grieve for this gentleman," she said to Leicester.
"I have inquired concerning him, and his presence confirms what I
heard, that he is a scholar and a soldier, well accomplished both
in arts and arms. We women, my lord, are fanciful in our choice
--I had said now, to judge by the eye, there was no comparison to
be held betwixt your follower and this gentleman. But Varney is
a well-spoken fellow, and, to say truth, that goes far with us of
the weaker sex.--look you, Master Tressilian, a bolt lost is not
Kenilworth |
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: gradations. And this from the reasons just assigned we can seldom hope to
effect in any one geological section. Supposing B and C to be two species,
and a third, A, to be found in an underlying bed; even if A were strictly
intermediate between B and C, it would simply be ranked as a third and
distinct species, unless at the same time it could be most closely
connected with either one or both forms by intermediate varieties. Nor
should it be forgotten, as before explained, that A might be the actual
progenitor of B and C, and yet might not at all necessarily be strictly
intermediate between them in all points of structure. So that we might
obtain the parent-species and its several modified descendants from the
lower and upper beds of a formation, and unless we obtained numerous
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 The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne: "Are they good to eat?" asked Pencroft.
"Perfectly so."
"Then let us eat some lithodomes."
The sailor could rely upon Herbert; the young boy was well up in natural
history, and always had had quite a passion for the science. His father had
encouraged him in it, by letting him attend the lectures of the best
professors in Boston, who were very fond of the intelligent, industrious
lad. And his turn for natural history was, more than once in the course of
time, of great use, and he was not mistaken in this instance. These
lithodomes were oblong shells, suspended in clusters and adhering very
tightly to the rocks. They belong to that species of molluscous perforators
The Mysterious Island |
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 The King of the Golden River by John Ruskin: "Ha, ha!" laughed Schwartz, "are you there? Remember the prison
bars, my boy. Water, indeed! do you suppose I carried it all the
way up here for you?" And he strode over the figure; yet, as he
passed, he thought he saw a strange expression of mockery about its
lips. And when he had gone a few yards farther, he looked back; but
the figure was not there.
And a sudden horror came over Schwartz, he knew not why; but
the thirst for gold prevailed over his fear, and he rushed on. And
the bank of black cloud rose to the zenith, and out of it came
bursts of spiry lightning, and waves of darkness seemed to heave and
float, between their flashes, over the whole heavens. And the sky
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