| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Faraday as a Discoverer by John Tyndall: We were both without definite outlook at the time, needing proper
work, and only anxious to have it to perform. The chairs of Natural
History and of Physics being advertised as vacant in the University
of Toronto, we applied for them, he for the one, I for the other;
but, possibly guided by a prophetic instinct, the University
authorities declined having anything to do with either of us.
If I remember aright, we were equally unlucky elsewhere.
One of Faraday's earliest letters to me had reference to this
Toronto business, which he thought it unwise in me to neglect.
But Toronto had its own notions, and in 1853, at the instance of
Dr. Bence Jones, and on the recommendation of Faraday himself,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Hidden Masterpiece by Honore de Balzac: wrapping or overlapping another. To speak rigorously, there is no such
thing as drawing. Do not laugh, young man; no matter how strange that
saying seems to you, you will understand the reasons for it one of
these days. A line is a means by which man explains to himself the
effect of light upon a given object; but there is no such thing as a
line in nature, where all things are rounded and full. It is only in
modelling that we really draw,--in other words, that we detach things
from their surroundings and put them in their due relief. The proper
distribution of light can alone reveal the whole body. For this reason
I do not sharply define lineaments; I diffuse about their outline a
haze of warm, light half-tints, so that I defy any one to place a
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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 Animal Farm by George Orwell: Commandment had not been violated; for clearly there was good reason for
killing the traitors who had leagued themselves with Snowball.
Throughout the year the animals worked even harder than they had worked in
the previous year. To rebuild the windmill, with walls twice as thick as
before, and to finish it by the appointed date, together with the regular
work of the farm, was a tremendous labour. There were times when it seemed
to the animals that they worked longer hours and fed no better than they
had done in Jones's day. On Sunday mornings Squealer, holding down a long
strip of paper with his trotter, would read out to them lists of figures
proving that the production of every class of foodstuff had increased by
two hundred per cent, three hundred per cent, or five hundred per cent,
Animal Farm |
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 Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: Where I hit him I do not know, nor if I killed him, for scarce
had he started to collapse when I was through the window
at my rear. In another second the waters of Omean closed
above my head, and the three of us were making for the little
flier a hundred yards away.
Xodar was burdened with the boy, and I with the three long-swords.
The revolver I had dropped, so that while we were both strong
swimmers it seemed to me that we moved at a snail's pace
through the water. I was swimming entirely beneath the surface,
but Xodar was compelled to rise often to let the youth breathe,
so it was a wonder that we were not discovered long before we were.
The Gods of Mars |
