| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Walden by Henry David Thoreau: are actually though needlessly poor all their lives because they
think that they must have such a one as their neighbors have. As if
one were to wear any sort of coat which the tailor might cut out for
him, or, gradually leaving off palm-leaf hat or cap of woodchuck
skin, complain of hard times because he could not afford to buy him
a crown! It is possible to invent a house still more convenient and
luxurious than we have, which yet all would admit that man could not
afford to pay for. Shall we always study to obtain more of these
things, and not sometimes to be content with less? Shall the
respectable citizen thus gravely teach, by precept and example, the
necessity of the young man's providing a certain number of
Walden |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: six employ the same methods and weave similar webs, save for
certain details that shall be set forth later. I will, therefore,
sum up in the aggregate the particulars supplied by one or other of
them.
My subjects, in the first instance, are young and boast but a
slight corporation, very far removed from what it will be in the
late autumn. The belly, the wallet containing the rope-works,
hardly exceeds a peppercorn in bulk. This slenderness on the part
of the spinstresses must not prejudice us against their work:
there is no parity between their skill and their years. The adult
Spiders, with their disgraceful paunches, can do no better.
The Life of the Spider |
