| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Barlaam and Ioasaph by St. John of Damascus: wondrous plain, they brought him to a city that glistered with
light unspeakable, whose walls were of dazzling gold, with high
uprear'd parapets, built of gems such as man hath never seen.
Ah! who could describe the beauty and brightness of that city?
Light, ever shooting from above, filled all her streets with
bright rays; and winged squadrons, each of them itself a light,
dwelt in this city, making such melody as mortal ear ne'er heard.
And Ioasaph heard a voice crying, "This is the rest of the
righteous: this the gladness of them that have pleased the Lord."
When these dread men had carried him out from thence, they spake
of taking him back to earth. But he, that had lost his heart to
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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: be dropped by the bird whilst feeding its young, in the same way as fish
are known sometimes to be dropped.
In considering these several means of distribution, it should be remembered
that when a pond or stream is first formed, for instance, on a rising
islet, it will be unoccupied; and a single seed or egg will have a good
chance of succeeding. Although there will always be a struggle for life
between the individuals of the species, however few, already occupying any
pond, yet as the number of kinds is small, compared with those on the land,
the competition will probably be less severe between aquatic than between
terrestrial species; consequently an intruder from the waters of a foreign
country, would have a better chance of seizing on a place, than in the case
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 Les Miserables by Victor Hugo: when we are walking along peaceably, and doing no harm to any one?
I am rather ill, as you see. And then, he had been saying impertinent
things to me for a long time: `You are ugly! you have no teeth!'
I know well that I have no longer those teeth. I did nothing;
I said to myself, `The gentleman is amusing himself.' I was
honest with him; I did not speak to him. It was at that moment
that he put the snow down my back. Monsieur Javert, good Monsieur
Inspector! is there not some person here who saw it and can tell
you that this is quite true? Perhaps I did wrong to get angry.
You know that one is not master of one's self at the first moment.
One gives way to vivacity; and then, when some one puts something
Les Miserables |
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 Blue Flower by Henry van Dyke: you think that love broadens a man's outlook? To me it seems
to make him narrower--happier, perhaps, within his own little
circle--but distinctly narrower. Knowledge is the only thing
that broadens life, sets it free from the tyranny of the
parish, fills it with the sense of power. And love is the
opposite of knowledge. Love is a kind of an illusion--a happy
illusion, that is what love is. Don't you see that?"
"See it?" I cried. "I don't know what you mean. Do you
mean that you don't really care for Dorothy Ward? Do you mean
that what you have won in her is an illusion? If so, you are
as wrong as a man can be."
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