| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin: with their boastful cry of liberty, have been and are so
guilty: but it is a consolation to reflect, that we at least
have made a greater sacrifice, than ever made by any nation,
to expiate our sin.
On the last day of August we anchored for the second time
at Porto Praya in the Cape de Verd archipelago; thence we
proceeded to the Azores, where we stayed six days. On the
2nd of October we made the shore, of England; and at Falmouth
I left the Beagle, having lived on board the good little
vessel nearly five years.
Our Voyage having come to an end, I will take a short
The Voyage of the Beagle |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lucile by Owen Meredith: "And the mariners greet her; there's song on each lip,
For that bird of good omen, and joy in each eye.
And the ship and the bird, and the bird and the ship,
Together go forth over ocean and sky.
"Fast, fast fades the land! far the rose-gardens flee,
And far fleet the harbors. In regions unknown
The ship is alone on a desert of sea,
And the bird in a desert of sky is alone.
"In those regions unknown, o'er that desert of air,
Down that desert of waters--tremendous in wrath--
The storm-wind Euroclydon leaps from his lair,
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