| 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: structure within the same areas during the later geological periods ceases
to be mysterious, and is simply explained by inheritance.
If then the geological record be as imperfect as I believe it to be, and it
may at least be asserted that the record cannot be proved to be much more
perfect, the main objections to the theory of natural selection are greatly
diminished or disappear. On the other hand, all the chief laws of
palaeontology plainly proclaim, as it seems to me, that species have been
produced by ordinary generation: old forms having been supplanted by new
and improved forms of life, produced by the laws of variation still acting
round us, and preserved by Natural Selection.
Chapter XI
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 Catriona by Robert Louis Stevenson: embarrassed. If any had seen us there, it must have been supposed that
Alan was the old friend and I the stranger. Indeed, I had often cause
to love and to admire the man, but I never loved or admired him better
than that night; and I could not help remarking to myself (what I was
sometimes rather in danger of forgetting) that he had not only much
experience of life, but in his own way a great deal of natural ability
besides. As for Catriona, she seemed quite carried away; her laugh was
like a peal of bells, her face gay as a May morning; and I own,
although I was well pleased, yet I was a little sad also, and thought
myself a dull, stockish character in comparison of my friend, and very
unfit to come into a young maid's life, and perhaps ding down her
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Heap O' Livin' by Edgar A. Guest: As fall the leaves, so drop the days
In silence from the tree of life;
Born for a little while to blaze
In action in the heat of strife,
And then to shrivel with Time's blast
And fade forever in the past.
In beauty once the leaf was seen;
To all it offered gentle shade;
Men knew the splendor of its green
That cheered them so, would quickly fade:
And quickly, too, must pass away
A Heap O' Livin' |
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 Alcibiades II by Platonic Imitator: ALCIBIADES: Yes.
SOCRATES: And in a similar way you speak of a good boxer or a good flute-
player or a good performer in any other art?
ALCIBIADES: True.
SOCRATES: But is it necessary that the man who is clever in any of these
arts should be wise also in general? Or is there a difference between the
clever artist and the wise man?
ALCIBIADES: All the difference in the world.
SOCRATES: And what sort of a state do you think that would be which was
composed of good archers and flute-players and athletes and masters in
other arts, and besides them of those others about whom we spoke, who knew
|
