| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin: 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
pistils of flowers as metamorphosed leaves; but it would in these cases
probably be more correct, as Professor Huxley has remarked, to speak of
On the Origin of Species |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen: the fountain of good things to secure one of the family livings,
but the son, even if he had taken orders, would scarcely have
obtained so much as this, and moreover felt no vocation for the
ecclesiastical estate. Thus he fronted the world with no
better armour than the bachelor's gown and the wits of a younger
son's grandson, with which equipment he contrived in some way to
make a very tolerable fight of it. At twenty-five Mr. Charles
Aubernon saw himself still a man of struggles and of warfare
with the world, but out of the seven who stood before him and
the high places of his family three only remained. These three,
however, were "good lives," but yet not proof against the Zulu
The Great God Pan |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Catherine de Medici by Honore de Balzac: Christophe.
The sailor, an impetuous being, tanned by the open air, accustomed to
dewy nights and burning days, with closed lips, hasty gestures, orange
eyes, ravenous as those of a vulture, and black, frizzled hair, was
the embodiment of an adventurer who risks all in a venture, as a
gambler stakes all on a card. His whole appearance revealed terrific
passions, and an audacity that flinched at nothing. His vigorous
muscles were made to be quiescent as well as to act. His manner was
more audacious than noble. His nose, though thin, turned up and
snuffed battle. He seemed agile and capable. You would have known him
in all ages for the leader of a party. If he were not of the
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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 On Horsemanship by Xenophon: simultaneously giving him one of the signals to be off, the horse,
galled on the one hand by the bit, and on the other collecting himself
in obedience to the signal "off," will throw forward his chest and
raise his legs aloft with fiery spirit; though not indeed with
suppleness, for the supple play of the limbs ceases as soon as the
horse feels annoyance. But now, supposing when his fire is thus
enkindled[11] you give him the rein, the effect is instantaneous.
Under the pleasurable sense of freedom, thanks to the relaxation of
the bit, with stately bearing and legs pliantly moving he dashes
forward in his pride, in every respect imitating the airs and graces
of a horse approaching other horses. Listen to the epithets with which
On Horsemanship |
