| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin: is, compared with the area over which our geological formations have been
carefully examined; we forget that groups of species may elsewhere have
long existed and have slowly multiplied before they invaded the ancient
archipelagoes of Europe and of the United States. We do not make due
allowance for the enormous intervals of time, which have probably elapsed
between our consecutive formations,--longer perhaps in some cases than the
time required for the accumulation of each formation. These intervals will
have given time for the multiplication of species from some one or some few
parent-forms; and in the succeeding formation such species will appear as
if suddenly created.
I may here recall a remark formerly made, namely that it might require a
On the Origin of Species |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Protagoras by Plato: difference between them. But what matter? if you please I please; and let
us assume, if you will I, that justice is holy, and that holiness is just.
Pardon me, I replied; I do not want this 'if you wish' or 'if you will'
sort of conclusion to be proven, but I want you and me to be proven: I
mean to say that the conclusion will be best proven if there be no 'if.'
Well, he said, I admit that justice bears a resemblance to holiness, for
there is always some point of view in which everything is like every other
thing; white is in a certain way like black, and hard is like soft, and the
most extreme opposites have some qualities in common; even the parts of the
face which, as we were saying before, are distinct and have different
functions, are still in a certain point of view similar, and one of them is
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