| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Moon-Face and Other Stories by Jack London: Again Mr. Hale laughed. His mind was full of a prospective deal with a Chicago
syndicate for the sale of all his street railways in that city, and so he went
on dictating to the stenographer, never giving it a second thought. But
somehow, I know not why, a heavy depression fell upon me. What if it were not
a joke, I asked myself, and turned involuntarily to the morning paper. There
it was, as befitted an obscure person of the lower classes, a paltry
half-dozen lines tucked away in a corner, next a patent medicine
advertisement:
Shortly after five o'clock this morning, on East Thirty-ninth Street, a
laborer named Pete Lascalle, while on his way to work, was stabbed to the
heart by an unknown assailant, who escaped by running. The police have been
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Bride of Lammermoor by Walter Scott: your reputation, think for a moment of drawing up with such a
rogue as Craigengelt, and such a scapegrace as folk call
Bucklaw?"
"Simply, because I was desperate, and sought desperate
associates."
"And what made you break off from us at the nearest?" again
demanded Bucklaw.
"Because I had changed my mind," said the Master, "and renounced
my enterprise, at least for the present. And now that I have
answered your questions fairly and frankly, tell me what makes
you associate with Craigengelt, so much beneath you both in
The Bride of Lammermoor |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from 'Twixt Land & Sea by Joseph Conrad: "I've been hearing pretty tales on shore about that ship-chandler
fellow who snatched the job from you so neatly, sir."
I remonstrated with my late patient for his manner of expressing
himself. But he only tossed his head disdainfully. A pretty dodge
indeed: boarding a strange ship with breakfast in two baskets for
all hands and calmly inviting himself to the captain's table!
Never heard of anything so crafty and so impudent in his life.
I found myself defending Jacobus's unusual methods.
"He's the brother of one of the wealthiest merchants in the port."
The mate's eyes fairly snapped green sparks.
"His grand brother hasn't spoken to him for eighteen or twenty
'Twixt Land & Sea |
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 On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin: floras more utterly dissimilar. Or again we may compare the productions of
South America south of lat. 35 deg with those north of 25 deg, which
consequently inhabit a considerably different climate, and they will be
found incomparably more closely related to each other, than they are to the
productions of Australia or Africa under nearly the same climate.
Analogous facts could be given with respect to the inhabitants of the sea.
A second great fact which strikes us in our general review is, that
barriers of any kind, or obstacles to free migration, are related in a
close and important manner to the differences between the productions of
various regions. We see this in the great difference of nearly all the
terrestrial productions of the New and Old Worlds, excepting in the
On the Origin of Species |
