| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from King James Bible: bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.
LEV 15:22 And whosoever toucheth any thing that she sat upon shall wash
his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.
LEV 15:23 And if it be on her bed, or on any thing whereon she sitteth,
when he toucheth it, he shall be unclean until the even.
LEV 15:24 And if any man lie with her at all, and her flowers be upon
him, he shall be unclean seven days; and all the bed whereon he lieth
shall be unclean.
LEV 15:25 And if a woman have an issue of her blood many days out of
the time of her separation, or if it run beyond the time of her
separation; all the days of the issue of her uncleanness shall be as the
King James Bible |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Charmides by Plato: magnitudes, numbers, and the like?
Very true.
But in the case of hearing and sight, or in the power of self-motion, and
the power of heat to burn, this relation to self will be regarded as
incredible by some, but perhaps not by others. And some great man, my
friend, is wanted, who will satisfactorily determine for us, whether there
is nothing which has an inherent property of relation to self, or some
things only and not others; and whether in this class of self-related
things, if there be such a class, that science which is called wisdom or
temperance is included. I altogether distrust my own power of determining
these matters: I am not certain whether there is such a science of science
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin: such parts or organs, a certain degree of fundamental resemblance, retained
by the strong principle of inheritance.
In the great class of molluscs, though we can homologise the parts of one
species with those of another and distinct species, we can indicate but few
serial homologies; that is, we are seldom enabled to say that one part or
organ is homologous with another in the same individual. And we can
understand this fact; for in molluscs, even in the lowest members of the
class, we do not find nearly so much indefinite repetition of any one part,
as we find in the other great classes of the animal and vegetable kingdoms.
Naturalists frequently speak of the skull as formed of metamorphosed
vertebrae: the jaws of crabs as metamorphosed legs; the stamens and
On the Origin of Species |
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 Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac: her voice,--"But, monsieur, I have not more influence over her than
you have. She has said nothing to me; she takes after you."
"Tut, tut! Your tongue is hung in the middle this morning. Ta, ta, ta,
ta! You are setting me at defiance, I do believe. I daresay you are in
league with her."
He looked fixedly at his wife.
"Monsieur Grandet, if you wish to kill me, you have only to go on like
this. I tell you, monsieur,--and if it were to cost me my life, I
would say it,--you do wrong by your daughter; she is more in the right
than you are. That money belonged to her; she is incapable of making
any but a good use of it, and God alone has the right to know our good
Eugenie Grandet |
