| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Pellucidar by Edgar Rice Burroughs: and wonderful a plain as I have ever seen. At the head
of navigation we disembarked, leaving a sufficient guard
for the feluccas, and marched the remaining distance to
Sari.
Ghak's army, which was composed of warriors of all
the original tribes of the federation, showing how suc-
cessful had been his efforts to rehabilitate the empire,
marched into Sari some time after we arrived. With
them were the thousand lidi from Thuria.
At a council of the kings it was decided that we should
at once commence the great war against the Mahars,
Pellucidar |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Research Magnificent by H. G. Wells: That was his first display of this new mood, which presently became
a common one. He was less and less content to let the happy hours
slip by, more and more sensitive to the reminders in giant ruin and
deserted cell, in a chance encounter with a string of guns and
soldiers on their way to manoeuvres or in the sight of a stale
newspaper, of a great world process going on in which he was now
playing no part at all. And a curious irritability manifested
itself more and more plainly, whenever human pettiness obtruded upon
his attention, whenever some trivial dishonesty, some manifest
slovenliness, some spiritless failure, a cheating waiter or a
wayside beggar brought before him the shiftless, selfish, aimless
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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 Ursula by Honore de Balzac: doubtful success of the measures he may take to elude the schemes
of his relatives against me. Though I am the legitimate daughter
of Joseph Mirouet, band-master of the 45th regiment of infantry,
my father himself was my godfather's natural half-brother; and
therefore these relatives may, though without reason, being a suit
against a young girl who would be defenceless. You see, monsieur,
that the smallness of my fortune is not my greatest misfortune. I
have many things to make me humble. It is for your sake, and not
for my own, that I lay before you these facts, which to loving and
devoted hearts are sometimes of little weight. But I beg you to
consider, monsieur, that if I did not submit them to you, I might
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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 Mosses From An Old Manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne: him thither. But the only thing about him that could be fixed
upon as remarkable was his staff, which bore the likeness of a
great black snake, so curiously wrought that it might almost be
seen to twist and wriggle itself like a living serpent. This, of
course, must have been an ocular deception, assisted by the
uncertain light.
"Come, Goodman Brown," cried his fellow-traveller, "this is a
dull pace for the beginning of a journey. Take my staff, if you
are so soon weary."
"Friend," said the other, exchanging his slow pace for a full
stop, "having kept covenant by meeting thee here, it is my
Mosses From An Old Manse |
