| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Emma by Jane Austen: very immaterial. She thought it in reality a sad exchange for herself,
to have him with his grave looks and reluctant conversation opposed
to her instead of his brother.
The event was more favourable to Mr. Woodhouse than to Emma.
John Knightley came; but Mr. Weston was unexpectedly summoned to town
and must be absent on the very day. He might be able to join them
in the evening, but certainly not to dinner. Mr. Woodhouse was quite
at ease; and the seeing him so, with the arrival of the little boys
and the philosophic composure of her brother on hearing his fate,
removed the chief of even Emma's vexation.
The day came, the party were punctually assembled, and Mr. John Knightley
Emma |
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 Faraday as a Discoverer by John Tyndall: of the power itself. He objects to the vagueness of De la Rive;
but the fact is, that both he and De la Rive labour under the same
difficulty. Neither wishes to commit himself to the notion of a
current compounded of two electricities flowing in two opposite
directions: but the time had not come, nor is it yet come, for the
displacement of this provisional fiction by the true mechanical
conception. Still, however indistinct the theoretic notions of
Faraday at this time may be, the facts which are rising before him
and around him are leading him gradually, but surely, to results of
incalculable importance in relation to the philosophy of the voltaic
pile.
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