| 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: up in the first snug corner, and there bivouacked.
March 25th. -- I was reminded of the Pampas of Buenos
Ayres, by seeing the disk of the rising sun, intersected by an
horizon level as that of the ocean. During the night a heavy
dew fell, a circumstance which we did not experience within
the Cordillera. The road proceeded for some distance due
east across a low swamp; then meeting the dry plain, it
turned to the north towards Mendoza. The distance is two
very long days' journey. Our first day's journey was called
fourteen leagues to Estacado, and the second seventeen to
Luxan, near Mendoza. The whole distance is over a level
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 Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake: INTRODUCTION
Piping down the valleys wild,
Piping songs of pleasant glee,
On a cloud I saw a child,
And he laughing said to me:
'Pipe a song about a Lamb!'
So I piped with merry cheer.
'Piper, pipe that song again.'
So I piped: he wept to hear.
'Drop thy pipe, thy happy pipe;
Sing thy songs of happy cheer!'
Songs of Innocence and Experience |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Land of Footprints by Stewart Edward White: and started out to run him down. After a quarter mile we began to
pick up the game herds. Those directly in our course ran straight
away; other herds on either side, seeing them running, came
across in a slant to join them. Inside of a half mile I was
driving before me literally thousands of head of game of several
varieties. The dust rose in a choking cloud that fairly obscured
the landscape, and the drumming of the hooves was like the
stampeding of cattle. It was a wonderful sight.
On the plains of Juja, also, I had my one real African Adventure,
when, as in the Sunday Supplements, I Stared Death in the
Face-also everlasting disgrace and much derision. We were just
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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 Beauty and The Beast by Bayard Taylor: may bark like a dog, meeouw like a cat, or bray like an ass, as
much as he chooses; but if he speaks a decent word, his tongue
shall be silenced with stripes. Whoever shall insult them has my
pardon in advance. Oh, let them come!--ay, let them come! Come
they may: but how they go away again"----
The Prince Alexis suddenly stopped, shook his head, and walked up
and down the hall, muttering to himself. His eyes were bloodshot,
and sparkled with a strange light. What the stewards had heard was
plain enough; but that something more terrible than insult was yet
held in reserve they did not doubt. It was safe, therefore, not
only to fulfil, but to exceed, the letter of their instructions.
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