| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Ebb-Tide by Stevenson & Osbourne: captain into the stateroom, where he began to adjust the
chronometer in its place at the bed-head.
'Not much!' replied he. 'I guess I'll berth on deck. I don't
know as I'm afraid, but I've no immediate use for confluent
smallpox.'
'I don't know that I'm afraid either,' said Herrick. 'But the
thought of these two men sticks in my throat; that captain and
mate dying here, one opposite to the other. It's grim. I wonder
what they said last?'
'Wiseman and Wishart?' said the captain. 'Probably mighty
small potatoes. That's a thing a fellow figures out for himself
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James: raise a larger one. This is due, according to Aristotle, to the
generally miraculous character of the circle and of all circular
movement. The circle is both convex and concave; it is made by a
fixed point and a moving line, which contradict each other; and
whatever moves in a circle moves in opposite directions.
Nevertheless, movement in a circle is the most "natural"
movement; and the long arm of the lever, moving, as it does, in
the larger circle, has the greater amount of this natural motion,
and consequently requires the lesser force. Or recall the
explanation by Herodotus of the position of the sun in winter:
It moves to the south because of the cold which drives it into
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe: "I _have_," said Legree, with a grim, terrible calmness,
"_done--just--that--thing_, Tom, unless you'll tell me what you
know about these yer gals!"
Tom stood silent.
"D'ye hear?" said Legree, stamping, with a roar like that
of an incensed lion. "Speak!"
"_I han't got nothing to tell, Mas'r_," said Tom, with a
slow, firm, deliberate utterance.
"Do you dare to tell me, ye old black Christian, ye don't
_know_?" said Legree.
Tom was silent.
Uncle Tom's Cabin |
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 Complete Angler by Izaak Walton: whole winter, without meat. And so Albertus observes, That there is
one kind of frog that hath her mouth naturally shut up about the end of
August, and that she lives so all the winter: and though it be strange to
some, yet it is known to too many among us to be doubted.
And so much for these Fordidge Trouts, which never afford an angler
sport, but either live their time of being in the fresh water, by their meat
formerly gotten in the sea, not unlike the swallow or frog, or, by the
virtue of the fresh water only; or, as the birds of Paradise and the
cameleon are said to live, by the sun and the air.
There is also in Northumberland a Trout called a Bull-trout, of a much
greater length and bigness than any in these southern parts; and there
|
