| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin: pepper-vine, the latter intwining round its trunk, and
supporting itself by the prickles on its stem; the soap-tree;
the castor-oil plant; trunks of the sago palm; and various kinds
of seeds unknown to the Malays settled on the islands.
These are all supposed to have been driven by the N. W.
monsoon to the coast of New Holland, and thence to these
islands by the S. E. trade-wind. Large masses of Java teak
and Yellow wood have also been found, besides immense
trees of red and white cedar, and the blue gumwood of New
Holland, in a perfectly sound condition. All the hardy seeds,
such as creepers, retain their germinating power, but the
The Voyage of the Beagle |
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 Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner: just to be looking back too, and we looked right into each other's faces;
and he got red, and I got so red. I believe he is the new man."
"Yes," said Waldo.
"I must go now. Perhaps he has brought us letters from the post from
Lyndall. You know she can't stay at school much longer, she must come back
soon. And the new man will have to stay with us till his house is built.
I must get his room ready. Good-bye!"
She tripped off again, and Waldo carved on at his post. Doss lay with his
nose close to the covered saucer, and smelt that some one had made nice
little fat cakes that afternoon. Both were so intent on their occupation
that not till a horse's hoofs beat beside them in the sand did they look up
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