| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Off on a Comet by Jules Verne: secure very high prices.
It happened, just about this same time, that Ben Zoof had been
calling his master's attention to the fact that some of their most
necessary provisions would soon be running short, and that their stock
of coffee, sugar, and tobacco would want replenishing. Servadac's mind,
of course, turned to the cargo on board the _Hansa_, and he resolved,
according to his promise, to apply to the Jew and become a purchaser.
Mutual interest and necessity thus conspired to draw Hakkabut and
the captain together.
Often and often had Isaac gloated in his solitude over the prospect
of first selling a portion of his merchandise for all the gold
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Fables by Robert Louis Stevenson: Then the younger brother laughed aloud. "Why," said he, "I found
the touchstone years ago, and married the maid, and there are our
children playing at the gate."
Now at this the elder brother grew as gray as the dawn. "I pray
you have dealt justly," said he, "for I perceive my life is lost."
"Justly?" quoth the younger brother. "It becomes you ill, that are
a restless man and a runagate, to doubt my justice, or the King my
father's, that are sedentary folk and known in the land."
"Nay," said the elder brother, "you have all else, have patience
also; and suffer me to say the world is full of touchstones, and it
appears not easily which is true."
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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 House of Dust by Conrad Aiken: Or be from my lover's body removed?'
Dead leaves stream through the hurrying air
And the maenads dance with flying hair.
* * * * *
The priests with hooves, the lovers with horns,
Rise in the starlight, one by one,
They draw their knives on the spurting throats,
They smear the column with blood of goats,
They dabble the blood on hair and lips
And wait like stones for the moon's eclipse.
They stand like stones and stare at the sky
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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 Beasts of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs: at the throat of any than the white man, whom he evidently
now looked upon as his master.
In the stern was Mugambi, and just in front of him squatted
Akut, while between Akut and Tarzan the twelve hairy apes
sat upon their haunches, blinking dubiously this way and that,
and now and then turning their eyes longingly back toward shore.
All went well until the canoe had passed beyond the reef.
Here the breeze struck the sail, sending the rude craft
lunging among the waves that ran higher and higher as
they drew away from the shore.
With the tossing of the boat the apes became panic-stricken.
The Beasts of Tarzan |
