| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin by Robert Louis Stevenson: hovered above the family, it began at last to strike and its blows
fell thick and heavy. The first to go was uncle John Jenkin, taken
at last from his Mexican dwelling and the lost tribes of Israel;
and nothing in this remarkable old gentleman's life, became him
like the leaving of it. His sterling, jovial acquiescence in man's
destiny was a delight to Fleeming. 'My visit to Stowting has been
a very strange but not at all a painful one,' he wrote. 'In case
you ever wish to make a person die as he ought to die in a novel,'
he said to me, 'I must tell you all about my old uncle.' He was to
see a nearer instance before long; for this family of Jenkin, if
they were not very aptly fitted to live, had the art of manly
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Confidence by Henry James: he ventured to call her attention to her blessings.
She answered that she was perfectly aware of them, and there
was no pretty speech she was not prepared to make about
Gordon.
"I know what you want to say," she went on; "you want to say
that he spoils me, and I don't see why you should hesitate.
You generally say everything you want, and you need n't
be afraid of me. He does n't spoil me, simply because I am
so bad I can't be spoiled; but that 's of no consequence.
I was spoiled ages ago; every one spoiled me--every one except
Mrs. Vivian. I was always fond of having everything I want,
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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 Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: the receptacle is filled to the top, I withdraw the reed, which
leaves a yawning, perpendicular shaft. I thus obtain the abode
which shall replace that of the fields.
To find the hermit to inhabit it is merely the matter of a walk in
the neighbourhood. When removed from her own dwelling, which is
turned topsy-turvy by my trowel, and placed in possession of the
den produced by my art, the Lycosa at once disappears into that
den. She does not come out again, seeks nothing better elsewhere.
A large wire-gauze cover rests on the soil in the pan and prevents
escape.
In any case, the watch, in this respect, makes no demands upon my
The Life of the Spider |
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 Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: "I am ready to cast off the ties that have bound me. I am
ready to defy Issus herself; but what will it avail us?
Be the First Born gods or mortals, they are a powerful race,
and we are as fast in their clutches as though we were already dead.
There is no escape."
"I have escaped from bad plights in the past, my friend,"
I replied; "nor while life is in me shall I despair of escaping
from the Isle of Shador and the Sea of Omean."
"But we cannot escape even from the four walls of our
prison," urged Xodar. "Test this flint-like surface," he cried,
smiting the solid rock that confined us. "And look upon this
The Gods of Mars |
