| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Arrow of Gold by Joseph Conrad: a very ordinary person to all eyes but mine. It was then past
eleven, not much, because we had not been in that restaurant quite
an hour, but the routine of the town's night-life being upset
during the Carnival the usual row of fiacres outside the Maison
Doree was not there; in fact, there were very few carriages about.
Perhaps the coachmen had assumed Pierrot costumes and were rushing
about the streets on foot yelling with the rest of the population.
"We will have to walk," I said after a while. - "Oh, yes, let us
walk," assented Senor Ortega, "or I will be frozen here." It was
like a plaint of unutterable wretchedness. I had a fancy that all
his natural heat had abandoned his limbs and gone to his brain. It
The Arrow of Gold |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from An Open Letter on Translating by Dr. Martin Luther: can help it. How much more might people learn from "that they
need not do any good works", when all they hear is about the
preaching about the works themselves, sated in such a clear
strong way: "No works", "without works", "not by works"! If it is
not offensive to preach "without works", "not by works"! If it is
not offensive to preach "without works", "not by works"!, "no
works", why is it offensive to preach "by faith alone"?
Still more offensive is that St. Paul does not reject just
ordinary works, but works of the law! It follows that one could
take offense at that all the more and say that the law is
condemned and cursed before God and one ought only do what is
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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 On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin: existed; or, sediment may be accumulated to any thickness and extent over a
shallow bottom, if it continue slowly to subside. In this latter case, as
long as the rate of subsidence and supply of sediment nearly balance each
other, the sea will remain shallow and favourable for life, and thus a
fossiliferous formation thick enough, when upraised, to resist any amount
of degradation, may be formed.
I am convinced that all our ancient formations, which are rich in fossils,
have thus been formed during subsidence. Since publishing my views on this
subject in 1845, I have watched the progress of Geology, and have been
surprised to note how author after author, in treating of this or that
great formation, has come to the conclusion that it was accumulated during
On the Origin of Species |
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 Essays of Francis Bacon by Francis Bacon: said, What a dust do I raise! So are there some vain
persons, that whatsoever goeth alone, or moveth
upon greater means, if they have never so little
hand in it, they think it is they that carry it. They
that are glorious, must needs be factious; for all
bravery stands upon comparisons. They must
needs be violent, to make good their own vaunts.
Neither can they be secret, and therefore not ef-
fectual; but according to the French proverb,
Beaucoup de bruit, peu de fruit; Much bruit little
fruit. Yet certainly, there is use of this quality in
Essays of Francis Bacon |
