| 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: carries his needful stomach in long branches, packed inside his
legs. The specimens which you will find will probably be half an
inch across the legs. An almost exactly similar Nymphon has been
dredged from the depths of the Arctic and Antarctic oceans, nearly
two feet across.
You may find also a quaint little shrimp, CAPRELLA, clinging by its
hind claws to sea-weed, and waving its gaunt grotesque body to and
fro, while it makes mesmeric passes with its large fore claws, -
one of the most ridiculous of Nature's many ridiculous forms.
Those which you will find will be some quarter of an inch in
length; but in the cold area of the North Atlantic, their cousins,
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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 Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas: "Oh!" muttered he, "my God, my God, Thou dost reward me for
my innocence and my captivity, as Thou hast allowed two such
flowers to grow at the grated window of my prison!"
The tulip was beautiful, splendid, magnificent; its stem was
more than eighteen inches high; it rose from out of four
green leaves, which were as smooth and straight as iron
lance-heads; the whole of the flower was as black and
shining as jet.
"Rosa," said Cornelius, almost gasping, "Rosa, there is not
one moment to lose in writing the letter."
"It is written, my dearest Cornelius," said Rosa.
The Black Tulip |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Beast in the Jungle by Henry James: consciousness, possibly annihilating me; possibly, on the other
hand, only altering everything, striking at the root of all my
world and leaving me to the consequences, however they shape
themselves."
She took this in, but the light in her eyes continued for him not
to be that of mockery. "Isn't what you describe perhaps but the
expectation--or at any rate the sense of danger, familiar to so
many people--of falling in love?"
John Marcher thought. "Did you ask me that before?"
"No--I wasn't so free-and-easy then. But it's what strikes me
now."
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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 Phaedrus by Plato: spoken word is in a manner plainer than the unspoken, I had better say
further that the irrational desire which overcomes the tendency of opinion
towards right, and is led away to the enjoyment of beauty, and especially
of personal beauty, by the desires which are her own kindred--that supreme
desire, I say, which by leading conquers and by the force of passion is
reinforced, from this very force, receiving a name, is called love
(erromenos eros).'
And now, dear Phaedrus, I shall pause for an instant to ask whether you do
not think me, as I appear to myself, inspired?
PHAEDRUS: Yes, Socrates, you seem to have a very unusual flow of words.
SOCRATES: Listen to me, then, in silence; for surely the place is holy; so
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