| 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: place of mammals. In the plants of the Galapagos Islands, Dr. Hooker has
shown that the proportional numbers of the different orders are very
different from what they are elsewhere. Such cases are generally accounted
for by the physical conditions of the islands; but this explanation seems
to me not a little doubtful. Facility of immigration, I believe, has been
at least as important as the nature of the conditions.
Many remarkable little facts could be given with respect to the inhabitants
of remote islands. For instance, in certain islands not tenanted by
mammals, some of the endemic plants have beautifully hooked seeds; yet few
relations are more striking than the adaptation of hooked seeds for
transportal by the wool and fur of quadrupeds. This case presents no
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 Two Poets by Honore de Balzac: above. A father's passion for natural science had stimulated the boy,
and at first induced him to follow in the same path. Lucien was one of
the most brilliant pupils at the grammar school of Angouleme, and when
David Sechard left, his future friend was in the third form.
When chance brought the school-fellows together again, Lucien was
weary of drinking from the rude cup of penury, and ready for any of
the rash, decisive steps that youth takes at the age of twenty.
David's generous offer of forty francs a month if Lucien would come to
him and learn the work of a printer's reader came in time; David had
no need whatever of a printer's reader, but he saved Lucien from
despair. The ties of a school friendship thus renewed were soon drawn
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Roads of Destiny by O. Henry: politeness and a kind of intelligence, having picked up the latter and
managed to preserve the former during a two years' residence in
Philadelphia studying medicine. For a Salvadorian he was not such a
calamitous little man, though he always would play jack, queen, king,
ace, deuce for a straight.
"General Mary sits with us and has a bottle. While he was in the
States he had acquired a synopsis of the English language and the art
of admiring our institutions. By and by the General gets up and
tiptoes to the doors and windows and other stage entrances, remarking
'Hist!' at each one. They all do that in Salvador before they ask for
a drink of water or the time of day, being conspirators from the
|
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 Grimm's Fairy Tales by Brothers Grimm: stays are laced! Let me lace them up with one of my nice new laces.'
Snowdrop did not dream of any mischief; so she stood before the old
woman; but she set to work so nimbly, and pulled the lace so tight,
that Snowdrop's breath was stopped, and she fell down as if she were
dead. 'There's an end to all thy beauty,' said the spiteful queen,
and went away home.
In the evening the seven dwarfs came home; and I need not say how
grieved they were to see their faithful Snowdrop stretched out upon
the ground, as if she was quite dead. However, they lifted her up, and
when they found what ailed her, they cut the lace; and in a little
time she began to breathe, and very soon came to life again. Then they
Grimm's Fairy Tales |
