| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Figure in the Carpet by Henry James: recognition, and it was pleasant, as we used to say in THE MIDDLE,
to see how it drew him out. He wasn't of course popular, but I
judged one of the sources of his good humour to be precisely that
his success was independent of that. He had none the less become
in a manner the fashion; the critics at least had put on a spurt
and caught up with him. We had found out at last how clever he
was, and he had had to make the best of the loss of his mystery. I
was strongly tempted, as I walked beside him, to let him know how
much of that unveiling was my act; and there was a moment when I
probably should have done so had not one of the ladies of our
party, snatching a place at his other elbow, just then appealed to
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin: namely, the mutual relation of organism to organism,--the improvement of
one being entailing the improvement or the extermination of others; it
follows, that the amount of organic change in the fossils of consecutive
formations probably serves as a fair measure of the lapse of actual time.
A number of species, however, keeping in a body might remain for a long
period unchanged, whilst within this same period, several of these species,
by migrating into new countries and coming into competition with foreign
associates, might become modified; so that we must not overrate the
accuracy of organic change as a measure of time. During early periods of
the earth's history, when the forms of life were probably fewer and
simpler, the rate of change was probably slower; and at the first dawn of
On the Origin of Species |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Call of the Canyon by Zane Grey: dubiously, for the creek was deep, swift, and full of bowlders. Neither
driver nor horses appeared to mind obstacles. Carley was splashed and
jolted not inconsiderably. They passed through groves of oak trees, from
which the creek manifestly derived its name; and under gleaming walls,
cold, wet, gloomy, and silent; and between lines of solemn wide-spreading
pines. Carley saw deep, still green pools eddying under huge massed jumble
of cliffs, and stretches of white water, and then, high above the treetops,
a wild line of canyon rim, cold against the sky. She felt shut in from the
world, lost in an unscalable rut of the earth. Again the sunlight had
failed, and the gray gloom of the canyon oppressed her. It struck Carley as
singular that she could not help being affected by mere weather, mere
The Call of the Canyon |
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 1492 by Mary Johntson: With the second evening the hurricane sank; at dawn
the seas, though running high, no longer pushed against us
like white-maned horses of Death. We waited till noon,
then the sea being less mountainous, quitted the Bay of
Comfort and went to look for the three ships.
The _Juana_ and the _San Sebastian_ we presently sighted
and rejoiced thereat. But the _Margarita_! We saw her
nowhere, and the Admiral's face grew gray. His son Fernando
pressed close to him. ``My uncle is a bold man, and
they say the second seaman in the world! Let's hope and
hope--and hope!''
|
