| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Silas Marner by George Eliot: morning's meet was near Batherley, the market-town where the unhappy
woman lived, whose image became more odious to him every day; and to
his thought the whole vicinage was haunted by her. The yoke a man
creates for himself by wrong-doing will breed hate in the kindliest
nature; and the good-humoured, affectionate-hearted Godfrey Cass was
fast becoming a bitter man, visited by cruel wishes, that seemed to
enter, and depart, and enter again, like demons who had found in him
a ready-garnished home.
What was he to do this evening to pass the time? He might as well
go to the Rainbow, and hear the talk about the cock-fighting:
everybody was there, and what else was there to be done? Though,
Silas Marner |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Case of The Lamp That Went Out by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: Knoll had imagined this house to be the gardener's dwelling and as
it lay quite dark he supposed the inmates were either asleep or out
for the evening. It had been this house which he was intending to
honour by a visit. But seeing the woman walking towards it, he
decided it would not be safe to carry out his plan just yet awhile.
A few moments later he was certain that this last decision had been
a wise one, for he saw a man come from the main building and walk
along the path the woman had taken. "No, nothing doing there,"
thought Knoll, and concluded he had better go to sleep. He could
not remember just how long he may have dozed but it seemed to him
that during that time he had heard a shot. It did not interest him
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Nada the Lily by H. Rider Haggard: face. "Peace, my father," she said, "do not speak to me of marriage,
for I will wed no man, now that Umslopogaas is dead because of my
foolishness. I will live and die alone, and, oh! may I die quickly,
that I may go to seek him whom I love only!"
"Nay, Nada," I said, "Umslopogaas was your brother, and it is not
fitting that you should speak of him thus, even though he is dead."
"I know nothing of such matters, my father," she said. "I speak what
my heart tells me, and it tells me that I loved Umslopogaas living,
and, though he is dead, I shall love him alone to the end. Ah! you
think me but a child, yet my heart is large, and it does not lie to
me."
Nada the Lily |
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 the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin: any other structure, if the part be common to many subordinate forms, that
is, if it has been inherited for a very long period; for in this case it
will have been rendered constant by long-continued natural selection.
Glancing at instincts, marvellous as some are, they offer no greater
difficulty than does corporeal structure on the theory of the natural
selection of successive, slight, but profitable modifications. We can thus
understand why nature moves by graduated steps in endowing different
animals of the same class with their several instincts. I have attempted
to show how much light the principle of gradation throws on the admirable
architectural powers of the hive-bee. Habit no doubt sometimes comes into
play in modifying instincts; but it certainly is not indispensable, as we
On the Origin of Species |
