| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Ivanhoe by Walter Scott: ``better food at need there can be none---and truly,
if a king will not remain at home and slay his
own game, methinks he should not brawl too loud
if he finds it killed to his hand.''
``If your Grace, then,'' said Robin, ``will again
honour with your presence one of Robin Hood's
places of rendezvous, the venison shall not be lacking;
and a stoup of ale, and it may be a cup of
reasonably good wine, to relish it withal.''
The Outlaw accordingly led the way, followed by
the buxom Monarch, more happy, probably, in this
Ivanhoe |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Faraday as a Discoverer by John Tyndall: Footnotes to Chapter 2
[1] The reader's attention is directed to the concluding paragraph
of the 'Preface to the Second Edition written in December, 1869.
Also to the Life of Faraday by Dr. Bence Jones, vol. i. p. 338 et seq.
[2] Paris: Life of Davy, p. 391.
[3] Viz., November 19, December 3 and 10.
[4] I make the following extract from a letter from Sir John Herschel,
written to me from Collingwood, on the 3rd of November, 1867:--
'I will take this opportunity to mention that I believe myself to
have originated the suggestion of the employment of borate of lead
for optical purposes. It was somewhere in the year 1822, as well as
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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 The Works of Samuel Johnson by Samuel Johnson: Wherever there is wealth there will be dependance
and expectation, and wherever there is dependance,
there will be an emulation of servility.
Many of the follies which provoke general
censure, are the effects of such vanity as, however it
might have wantoned in the imagination, would
scarcely have dared the publick eye, had it not been
animated and emboldened by flattery. Whatever
difficulty there may be in the knowledge of
ourselves, scarcely any one fails to suspect his own
imperfections, till he is elevated by others to
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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 Tour Through Eastern Counties of England by Daniel Defoe: others that have lain a due time shall be thorough stone to the
centre, and as exceeding hard within as without. The same spring
is said to turn wood into iron. But this I take to be no more or
less than the quality, which, as I mentioned of the shore at the
Naze, is found to be in much of the stone all along this shore,
viz., of the copperas kind; and it is certain that the copperas
stone (so called) is found in all that cliff, and even where the
water of this spring has run; and I presume that those who call the
hardened pieces of wood, which they take out of this well by the
name of iron, never tried the quality of it with the fire or
hammer; if they had, perhaps they would have given some other
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