| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Cousin Pons by Honore de Balzac: "I should so have loved wife and children and home. . . . To be loved
by a very few in some corner--that was my whole ambition! Life is hard
for every one; I have seen people who had all that I wanted so much
and could not have, and yet they were not happy. . . . Then at the end
of my life, God put untold comfort in my way, when He gave me such a
friend. . . . And one thing I have not to reproach myself with--that I
have not known your worth nor appreciated you, my good Schmucke. . . .
I have loved you with my whole heart, with all the strength of love
that is in me. . . . Do not cry, Schmucke; I shall say no more if you
cry and it is so sweet to me to talk of ourselves to you. . . . If I
had listened to you, I should not be dying. I should have left the
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: 'DIVINITY,' the 'MEDICAL,' and the 'LAW' of session 1823-4.
The fact that there was no notice of the 'ARTS' seems to
suggest that they stood in the same intermediate position as
they do now - the epitome of student-kind. MR. TATLER'S
satire is, on the whole, good-humoured, and has not grown
superannuated in ALL its limbs. His descriptions may limp at
some points, but there are certain broad traits that apply
equally well to session 1870-1. He shows us the DIVINITY of
the period - tall, pale, and slender - his collar greasy, and
his coat bare about the seams - 'his white neckcloth serving
four days, and regularly turned the third' - 'the rim of his
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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: three families would be so closely linked together that they probably would
have to be united into one great family, in nearly the same manner as has
occurred with ruminants and pachyderms. Yet he who objected to call the
extinct genera, which thus linked the living genera of three families
together, intermediate in character, would be justified, as they are
intermediate, not directly, but only by a long and circuitous course
through many widely different forms. If many extinct forms were to be
discovered above one of the middle horizontal lines or geological
formations--for instance, above No. VI.--but none from beneath this line,
then only the two families on the left hand (namely, a14, &c., and b14,
&c.) would have to be united into one family; and the two other families
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 The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: First of all, we must witness the making of the net; we must see it
constructed and see it again and again, for the plan of such a
complex work can only be grasped in fragments. To-day, observation
will give us one detail; to-morrow, it will give us a second,
suggesting fresh points of view; as our visits multiply, a new fact
is each time added to the sum total of the acquired data,
confirming those which come before or directing our thoughts along
unsuspected paths.
The snow-ball rolling over the carpet of white grows enormous,
however scanty each fresh layer be. Even so with truth in
observational science: it is built up of trifles patiently
The Life of the Spider |
