| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert: quarters of the sky. They wheeled in the air as they flew with loud
hoarse cries, and formed a huge cloud rolling continually upon itself.
It was seen from Clypea, Rhades, and the promontory of Hermaeum.
Sometimes it would suddenly burst asunder, its black spirals extending
far away, as an eagle clove the centre of it, and then departed again;
here and there on the terraces the domes, the peaks of the obelisks,
and the pediments of the temples there were big birds holding human
fragments in their reddened beaks.
Owing to the smell the Carthaginians resigned themselves to unbind the
corpses. A few of them were burnt; the rest were thrown into the sea,
and the waves, driven by the north wind, deposited them on the shore
Salammbo |
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 Betty Zane by Zane Grey: wild, on the Potomac when I last saw you!"
"Do you remember when you used to lift me on your horse and give me lessons in
riding?"
"I remember better than you. How you used to stick on the back of that horse
was a mystery to me."
"Well, I shall be ready soon to go on with those lessons in riding. I have
heard of your wonderful leap over the hill and I should like to have you tell
me all about it. Of all the stories I have heard since I arrived at Fort
Henry, the one of your ride and leap for life is the most wonderful."
"Yes, Sam, she will bother you to death about that ride, and will try to give
you lessons in leaping down precipices. I should not be at all surprised to
Betty Zane |
