| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Passionate Pilgrim by William Shakespeare: A flower that dies when first it gins to bud;
A brittle glass that's broken presently:
A doubtful good, a gloss, a glass, a flower,
Lost, vaded, broken, dead within an hour.
And as goods lost are seld or never found,
As vaded gloss no rubbing will refresh,
As flowers dead lie wither'd on the ground,
As broken glass no cement can redress,
So beauty blemish'd once's for ever lost,
In spite of physic, painting, pain and cost.
XIV.
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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 War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells: "I came," she said. "I knew--knew----"
She put her hand to her throat--swayed. I made a step
forward, and caught her in my arms.
CHAPTER TEN
THE EPILOGUE
I cannot but regret, now that I am concluding my story,
how little I am able to contribute to the discussion of the
many debatable questions which are still unsettled. In one
respect I shall certainly provoke criticism. My particular
province is speculative philosophy. My knowledge of com-
parative physiology is confined to a book or two, but it
War of the Worlds |
