| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Hero of Our Time by M.Y. Lermontov: to him.
The doctor pressed it feelingly and continued:
"If you like I will present you" . . .
"Good heavens!" I said, clapping my hands.
"Are heroes ever presented? In no other way do
they make the acquaintance of their beloved than
by saving her from certain death!" . . .
"And you really wish to court Princess Mary?"
"Not at all, far from it! . . . Doctor, I triumph
at last! You do not understand me! . . .
It vexes me, however," I continued after a
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Prufrock/Other Observations by T. S. Eliot: "Ah, my friend, you do not know, you do not know
What life is, you who hold it in your hands";
(Slowly twisting the lilac stalks)
"You let it flow from you, you let it flow,
And youth is cruel, and has no remorse
And smiles at situations which it cannot see."
I smile, of course,
And go on drinking tea.
"Yet with these April sunsets, that somehow recall
My buried life, and Paris in the Spring
feel immeasurably at peace, and find the world
Prufrock/Other Observations |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Madam How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley: fingers, and worked the small scratches with that. But this stone
came from a place where man had, perhaps, never stood before,--ay,
which, perhaps, had never seen the light of day before since the
world was made; and as I happen to know that no man made the marks
upon that stone, we must set to work and think again for some tool
of Madam How's which may have made them.
And now I think you must give up guessing, and I must tell you the
answer to the riddle. Those marks were made by a hand which is
strong and yet gentle, tough and yet yielding, like the hand of a
man; a hand which handles and uses in a grip stronger than a
giant's its own carving tools, from the great boulder stone as
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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: have the most artificial governments. For instance, the
inhabitants of Otaheite, who, when first discovered, were
governed by hereditary kings, had arrived at a far higher grade
than another branch of the same people, the New Zealanders,
-- who, although benefited by being compelled to turn their
attention to agriculture, were republicans in the most absolute
sense. In Tierra del Fuego, until some chief shall arise
with power sufficient to secure any acquired advantage, such
as the domesticated animals, it seems scarcely possible that
the political state of the country can be improved. At present,
even a piece of cloth given to one is torn into shreds
The Voyage of the Beagle |
