| 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: the river. In some parts the estate is of no width, that is
to say, the land cannot be irrigated, and therefore is
valueless, like the surrounding rocky desert. The small quantity
of cultivated land in the whole line of valley, does not so
much depend on inequalities of level, and consequent unfitness
for irrigation, as on the small supply of water. The
river this year was remarkably full: here, high up the valley,
it reached to the horse's belly, and was about fifteen yards
wide, and rapid; lower down it becomes smaller and smaller,
and is generally quite lost, as happened during one period
of thirty years, so that not a drop entered the sea. The
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 Fables by Robert Louis Stevenson: stuffed.
"This is a hospitable house," said Jack; "but the ground must be
quaggy underneath, for at every step the building quakes."
He had gone some time in the house, when he began to be hungry.
Then he looked at the food, and at first he was afraid; but he
bared the sword, and by the shining of the sword, it seemed the
food was honest. So he took the courage to sit down and eat, and
he was refreshed in mind and body.
"This is strange," thought he, "that in the house of sorcery there
should be food so wholesome."
As he was yet eating, there came into that room the appearance of
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne: end to the other of them all the way.
From Grantham, till they had cross'd the Trent, my father was out of all
kind of patience at the vile trick and imposition which he fancied my
mother had put upon him in this affair--'Certainly,' he would say to
himself, over and over again, 'the woman could not be deceived herself--if
she could,--what weakness!'--tormenting word!--which led his imagination a
thorny dance, and, before all was over, play'd the duce and all with him;--
for sure as ever the word weakness was uttered, and struck full upon his
brain--so sure it set him upon running divisions upon how many kinds of
weaknesses there were;--that there was such a thing as weakness of the
body,--as well as weakness of the mind,--and then he would do nothing but
|
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 In the Cage by Henry James: world-atlas. Something came at last, but without perhaps appearing
quite adequately to crown the monument.
Preparation and precaution were, however, the natural flowers of
Mr. Mudge's mind, and in proportion as these things declined in one
quarter they inevitably bloomed elsewhere. He could always, at the
worst, have on Tuesday the project of their taking the Swanage boat
on Thursday, and on Thursday that of their ordering minced kidneys
on Saturday. He had moreover a constant gift of inexorable enquiry
as to where and what they should have gone and have done if they
hadn't been exactly as they were. He had in short his resources,
and his mistress had never been so conscious of them; on the other
|
