| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Lover's Complaint by William Shakespeare: What breast so cold that is not warmed here?
O cleft effect! cold modesty, hot wrath,
Both fire from hence and chill extincture hath.
'For lo! his passion, but an art of craft,
Even there resolv'd my reason into tears;
There my white stole of chastity I daff'd,
Shook off my sober guards, and civil fears;
Appear to him, as he to me appears,
All melting; though our drops this difference bore:
His poison'd me, and mine did him restore.
'In him a plenitude of subtle matter,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Bronte Sisters: anybody's persuasion, to marry for the sake of money, or rank, or
establishment, or any earthly thing, but true affection and well-
grounded esteem.'
'There is no necessity for that,' said I, 'for we have had some
discourse on that subject already, and I assure you her ideas of
love and matrimony are as romantic as any one could desire.'
'But romantic notions will not do: I want her to have true
notions.'
'Very right: but in my judgment, what the world stigmatises as
romantic, is often more nearly allied to the truth than is commonly
supposed; for, if the generous ideas of youth are too often over-
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Paz by Honore de Balzac: imposed by a noble soul to repress an involuntary evil thought; but
women see all, or see nothing, according to the condition of their
souls--love is their sole illuminator.
During forty-five days Paz watched and tended Adam without appearing
to think of Malaga, for the very good reason that he never did think of
her. Clementine, feeling that Adam was at the point of death though he
did not die, sent for all the leading doctors of Paris in
consultation.
"If he comes safely out of this," said the most distinguished of them
all, "it will only be by an effort of nature. It is for those who
nurse him to watch for the moment when they must second nature. The
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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 Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin: land. I am not botanist enough to say whether the
change here is owing to the introduction of new species,
to the altered growth of the same, or to a difference in their
proportional numbers. Azara has also observed with astonishment
this change: he is likewise much perplexed by the
immediate appearance of plants not occurring in the neighbourhood,
on the borders of any track that leads to a newly-
constructed hovel. In another part he says, [8] "ces chevaux
(sauvages) ont la manie de preferer les chemins, et le bord
des routes pour deposer leurs excremens, dont on trouve des
monceaux dans ces endroits." Does this not partly explain
The Voyage of the Beagle |
