| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad: he brought for the purpose. It had loops to go over his ears.
In the evening he could be seen squatted on the bank rinsing that
wrapper in the creek with great care, then spreading it solemnly
on a bush to dry.
"I slapped him on the back and shouted, `We shall have rivets!'
He scrambled to his feet exclaiming, `No! Rivets!' as though
he couldn't believe his ears. Then in a low voice, `You . . . eh?'
I don't know why we behaved like lunatics. I put my finger
to the side of my nose and nodded mysteriously. `Good for you!'
he cried, snapped his fingers above his head, lifting one foot.
I tried a jig. We capered on the iron deck. A frightful clatter came
Heart of Darkness |
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 On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin: little weight on the direct action of the conditions of life. Indirectly,
as already remarked, they seem to play an important part in affecting the
reproductive system, and in thus inducing variability; and natural
selection will then accumulate all profitable variations, however slight,
until they become plainly developed and appreciable by us.
Effects of Use and Disuse. -- From the facts alluded to in the first
chapter, I think there can be little doubt that use in our domestic animals
strengthens and enlarges certain parts, and disuse diminishes them; and
that such modifications are inherited. Under free nature, we can have no
standard of comparison, by which to judge of the effects of long-continued
use or disuse, for we know not the parent-forms; but many animals have
On the Origin of Species |
