| 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: fallen." There can be little doubt that this great change in
the vegetation affected not only the land-shells, causing eight
species to become extinct, but likewise a multitude of insects.
St. Helena, situated so remote from any continent, in the
midst of a great ocean, and possessing a unique Flora, excites
our curiosity. The eight land-shells, though now extinct,
and one living Succinea, are peculiar species found nowhere
else. Mr. Cuming, however, informs me that an English
Helix is common here, its eggs no doubt having been imported
in some of the many introduced plants. Mr. Cuming
collected on the coast sixteen species of sea-shells, of which
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 On Revenues by Xenophon: Nay, did not the very Thebans, in return for certain benefits, grant
to us Athenians to exercise leadership over them?[13] And at another
date the Lacedaemonans suffered us Athenians to arrange the terms of
hegemony[14] at our discretion, not as driven to such submission, but
in requital of kindly treatment. And to-day, owing to the chaos[15]
which reigns in Hellas, if I mistake not, an opportunity has fallen to
this city of winning back our fellow-Hellenes without pain or peril or
expense of any sort. It is given to us to try and harmonise states
which are at war with one another: it is given to us to reconcile the
differences of rival factions within those states themselves, wherever
existing.
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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 Across The Plains by Robert Louis Stevenson: supported as it was; but to those also who were taken early from
the easel, a regret is due. From all the young men of this period,
one stood out by the vigour of his promise; he was in the age of
fermentation, enamoured of eccentricities. "Il faut faire de la
peinture nouvelle," was his watchword; but if time and experience
had continued his education, if he had been granted health to
return from these excursions to the steady and the central, I must
believe that the name of Hills had become famous.
Siron's inn, that excellent artists' barrack, was managed upon easy
principles. At any hour of the night, when you returned from
wandering in the forest, you went to the billiard-room and helped
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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 The Alkahest by Honore de Balzac: felt it incumbent on her to respect his mood. Her womanly delicacy and
her submissive habits always led her to wait for Balthazar's
confidence; which, indeed, was assured to her by so constant an
affection that she had never had the slightest opening for jealousy.
Though certain of obtaining an answer whenever she should make the
inquiry, she still retained enough of the earlier impressions of her
life to dread a refusal. Besides, the moral malady of her husband had
its phases, and only came by slow degrees to the intolerable point at
which it destroyed the happiness of the family.
However occupied Balthazar Claes might be, he continued for several
months cheerful, affectionate, and ready to talk; the change in his
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