| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Hamlet by William Shakespeare: And let thine eye looke like a Friend on Denmarke.
Do not for euer with thy veyled lids
Seeke for thy Noble Father in the dust;
Thou know'st 'tis common, all that liues must dye,
Passing through Nature, to Eternity
Ham. I Madam, it is common
Queen. If it be;
Why seemes it so particular with thee
Ham. Seemes Madam? Nay, it is: I know not Seemes:
'Tis not alone my Inky Cloake (good Mother)
Nor Customary suites of solemne Blacke,
Hamlet |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tarzan the Untamed by Edgar Rice Burroughs: and had entered upon a desolate and arid desert waste, the
Arabs realized at last that we were lost. But they still kept on,
ever toward the west, crossing hideous gorges and marching
across the face of a burning land beneath the pitiless sun. The
poor slaves they had captured were, of course, compelled to
carry all the camp equipage and loot and thus heavily bur-
dened, half starved and without water, they soon commenced
to die like flies.
"We had not been in the desert land long before the Arabs
were forced to kill their horses for food, and when we reached
the first gorge, across which it would have been impossible
Tarzan the Untamed |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Pierre Grassou by Honore de Balzac: praises and fanaticism of their adherents. To-day, neither the crowd
nor the criticism grows impassioned about the products of that bazaar.
Forced to make the selection for itself, which in former days the
examining jury made for it, the attention of the public is soon
wearied and the exhibition closes. Before the year 1817 the pictures
admitted never went beyond the first two columns of the long gallery
of the old masters; but in that year, to the great astonishment of the
public, they filled the whole space. Historical, high-art, genre
paintings, easel pictures, landscapes, flowers, animals, and water-
colors,--these eight specialties could surely not offer more than
twenty pictures in one year worthy of the eyes of the public, which,
|
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 Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin: of studying the Natural History of the different countries we
visited, have been wholly due to Captain Fitz Roy, I hope I may
here be permitted to repeat my expression of gratitude to him;
and to add that, during the five years we were together, I
received from him the most cordial friendship and steady
assistance. Both to Captain Fitz Roy and to all the Officers of
the Beagle [1] I shall ever feel most thankful for the
undeviating kindness with which I was treated during our long
voyage.
This volume contains, in the form of a Journal, a history of
our voyage, and a sketch of those observations in Natural History
The Voyage of the Beagle |
