| 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: cannot possibly be here introduced. I can only state my conviction that it
is a rule of high generality. I am aware of several causes of error, but I
hope that I have made due allowance for them. It should be understood that
the rule by no means applies to any part, however unusually developed,
unless it be unusually developed in comparison with the same part in
closely allied species. Thus, the bat's wing is a most abnormal structure
in the class mammalia; but the rule would not here apply, because there is
a whole group of bats having wings; it would apply only if some one species
of bat had its wings developed in some remarkable manner in comparison with
the other species of the same genus. The rule applies very strongly in the
case of secondary sexual characters, when displayed in any unusual manner.
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 New Machiavelli by H. G. Wells: dressed. Her fair hair had been done in some way that made it seem
softer and more abundant than it was in my memory, and a gleam of
purple velvet-set diamonds showed amidst its mist of little golden
and brown lines. Her dress was of white and violet, the last trace
of mourning for her mother, and confessed the gracious droop of her
tall and slender body. She did not suggest Staffordshire at all,
and I was puzzled for a moment to think where I had met her. Her
sweetly shaped mouth with the slight obliquity of the lip and the
little kink in her brow were extraordinarily familiar to me. But
she had either been prepared by Altiora or she remembered my name.
"We met," she said, "while my step-father was alive--at Misterton.
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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 Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: barbarous neighbors, and groaning under the evils of a predatory
population both upon and within its borders.
Nor was he less admired and talked of abroad for his sailing round the
Peloponnesus, having set out from Pegae, or The Fountains, the port of
Megara, with a hundred galleys. For he not only laid waste the sea-
coast, as Tolmides had done before, but also, advancing far up into main
land with the soldiers he had on board, by the terror of his appearance
drove many within their walls; and at Nemea, with main force, routed and
raised a trophy over the Sicyonians, who stood their ground and joined
battle with him. And having taken on board a supply of soldiers into
the galleys, out of Achaia, then in league with Athens he crossed with
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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 The Second Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling: Gugger river that fills only when the rain falls in the hills,
till one day he saw the far line of the great Himalayas.
Then Purun Bhagat smiled, for he remembered that his mother was
of Rajput Brahmin birth, from Kulu way--a Hill-woman, always
home-sick for the snows--and that the least touch of Hill blood
draws a man in the end back to where he belongs.
"Yonder," said Purun Bhagat, breasting the lower slopes of
the Sewaliks, where the cacti stand up like seven-branched
candlesticks-"yonder I shall sit down and get knowledge";
and the cool wind of the Himalayas whistled about his ears
as he trod the road that led to Simla.
The Second Jungle Book |
