| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu by Sax Rohmer: rendered it the more soft. "My sister died in the desert.
My brother lived. Better, far better, that he had died, too."
Her words impressed me intensely.
"Of what are you speaking?" I questioned. "You speak of
slave-raids, of the desert. Where did these things take place?
Of what country are you?"
"Does it matter?" she questioned in turn. "Of what country am I?
A slave has no country, no name."
"No name!" I cried.
"You may call me Karamaneh," she said. "As Karamaneh I was
sold to Dr. Fu-Manchu, and my brother also he purchased.
The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Flame and Shadow by Sara Teasdale: Breathless and blinded by the race,
But we are watchers in the shade
Who speak with Wonder face to face.
The New Moon
Day, you have bruised and beaten me,
As rain beats down the bright, proud sea,
Beaten my body, bruised my soul,
Left me nothing lovely or whole --
Yet I have wrested a gift from you,
Day that dies in dusky blue:
For suddenly over the factories
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Paz by Honore de Balzac: "What does he like, then?" asked Clementine.
"Poland; he loves Poland and pines for it. His only spendings are sums
he gives, more in my name than in his own, to some of our poor
brother-exiles."
"Well, I shall love him, the fine fellow!" said the countess, "he
looks to me as simple-hearted as he is grand."
"All these pretty things you have about you," continued Adam, who
praised his friend in the noblest sincerity, "he picked up; he bought
them at auction, or as bargains from the dealers. Oh! he's keener than
they are themselves. If you see him rubbing his hands in the
courtyard, you may be sure he has traded away one good horse for a
|
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 War in the Air by H. G. Wells: folding-table and put it at his elbow, and on that was a glass
with champagne. And about him, above and below, was space--such
a clear emptiness and silence of space as only the aeronaut can
experience.
He did not know where he might be drifting, or what might happen
next. He accepted this state of affairs with a serenity
creditable to the Smallways' courage, which one might reasonably
have expected to be of a more degenerate and contemptible quality
altogether. His impression was that he was bound to come down
somewhere, and that then, if he wasn't smashed, some one, some
"society" perhaps, would probably pack him and the balloon back
|
