| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Oscar Wilde Miscellaneous by Oscar Wilde: common with Wilde other than what is shared by all real poets and
dramatists: He is a landed proprietor on Parnassus, not a
trespasser. In England we are more familiar with the poachers.
Time and Death are of course necessary before there can come any
adequate recognition of one of our most original and gifted singers.
Among his works are The Vinedresser and other Poems (1899), Absalom,
A Chronicle Play (1903), and The Centaur's Booty (1903). Mr. Sturge
Moore is also an art critic of distinction, and his learned works on
Durer (1905) and Correggio (1906) are more widely known (I am sorry
to say) than his powerful and enthralling poems.
Once again I must express my obligations to Mr. Stuart Mason for
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Collection of Beatrix Potter by Beatrix Potter: jumped into the flour barrel in a fright
Mittens ran away to the dairy, and hid
in an empty jar on the stone shelf where
the milk pans stand.
The visitor was a neighbor, Mrs. Ribby;
she had called to borrow some yeast.
Mrs. Tabitha came downstairs mewing
dreadfully--"Come in, Cousin Ribby, come
in, and sit ye down! I'm in sad trouble,
Cousin Ribby," said Tabitha, shedding
tears. "I've lost my dear son Thomas; I'm
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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 A Legend of Montrose by Walter Scott: fourth child which remains, than to rack these old bones, which
care little for the utmost indulgence of his wrath. One word, if
I list to speak it, could turn his day of humiliation and fasting
into a day of thankfulness and rejoicing, and breaking of bread.
O, I know it by my own heart? Dearer to me is the child Kenneth,
who chaseth the butterfly on the banks of the Aven, than ten sons
who are mouldering in earth, or are preyed on by the fowls of the
air."
"I presume, Ranald," continued Dalgetty, "that the three pretty
fellows whom I saw yonder in the market-place, strung up by the
head like rizzer'd haddocks, claimed some interest in you?"
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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 the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin: commonly occur at the present day, under the circumstances apparently most
favourable for their presence, namely on an extensive and continuous area
with graduated physical conditions. I endeavoured to show, that the life
of each species depends in a more important manner on the presence of other
already defined organic forms, than on climate; and, therefore, that the
really governing conditions of life do not graduate away quite insensibly
like heat or moisture. I endeavoured, also, to show that intermediate
varieties, from existing in lesser numbers than the forms which they
connect, will generally be beaten out and exterminated during the course of
further modification and improvement. The main cause, however, of
innumerable intermediate links not now occurring everywhere throughout
On the Origin of Species |
