| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Glaucus/The Wonders of the Shore by Charles Kingsley: tanks, a pentagonal webbed bird's foot, of scarlet and orange
shagreen. With him, most probably, will be a specimen of the great
purple heart-urchin (Spatangus purpureus), clothed in pale lilac
horny spines, and other Echinoderms, for which you must consult
Forbes's "British Star-fishes:" but perhaps the species among them
which will interest you most, will be the common brittle-star
(Ophiocoma rosula), of which a hundred or so, I can promise, shall
come up at a single haul of the dredge, entwining their long spine-
clad arms in a seemingly inextricable confusion of "kaleidoscope"
patterns (thanks to Mr. Gosse for the one right epithet), purple
and azure, fawn, brown, green, grey, white and crimson; as if 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 The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes: estimate. I have always tried to be gentle with the most hopeless
cases. My experience, however, has not been encouraging.
- X. Y., aet. 18, a cheaply-got-up youth, with narrow jaws, and
broad, bony, cold, red hands, having been laughed at by the girls
in his village, and "got the mitten" (pronounced mittIn) two or
three times, falls to souling and controlling, and youthing and
truthing, in the newspapers. Sends me some strings of verses,
candidates for the Orthopedic Infirmary, all of them, in which I
learn for the millionth time one of the following facts: either
that something about a chime is sublime, or that something about
time is sublime, or that something about a chime is concerned with
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen: "You have lost an hour," said Morland; "it was only
ten o'clock when we came from Tetbury."
"Ten o'clock! It was eleven, upon my soul! I counted
every stroke. This brother of yours would persuade me
out of my senses, Miss Morland; do but look at my horse;
did you ever see an animal so made for speed in your life?"
(The servant had just mounted the carriage and was driving off.)
"Such true blood! Three hours and and a half indeed coming
only three and twenty miles! Look at that creature,
and suppose it possible if you can."
"He does look very hot, to be sure."
Northanger Abbey |
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 Beasts of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs: power to stop her, for there was no other boat upon
the shore, and no man, and certainly not the cowardly Rokoff,
would dare to attempt to swim the crocodile-infested
water in an effort to overtake her.
Rokoff, on his part, was bent more upon escape than aught else.
He would gladly have forgone any designs he might have
had upon Jane Clayton would she but permit him to share
this means of escape that she had discovered. He would
promise anything if she would let him come aboard the dugout,
but he did not think that it was necessary to do so.
He saw that he could easily reach the bow of the boat
The Beasts of Tarzan |
