| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Thuvia, Maid of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: do when approaching its master.
Thuvia glanced quickly toward Carthoris. He was
standing erect, with high-held head and arms folded
across his broad chest. A haughty smile curved his lips.
The man upon the dais was eyeing him intently, and
Carthoris of Helium was looking straight in the other's face.
"Who be these, Jav?" asked the man of him who
crawled upon his belly along the floor.
"O Tario, most glorious Jeddak," replied Jav, "these be
strangers who came with the hordes of Torquas to our gates,
saying that they were prisoners of the green men.
Thuvia, Maid of Mars |
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 Hidden Masterpiece by Honore de Balzac: well that once, having sold and drunk the value of a flowered damask
which he should have worn at the entrance of Charles V., he made his
appearance in a paper garment painted to resemble damask. The splendor
of the stuff attracted the attention of the emperor, who, wishing to
compliment the old drunkard, laid a hand upon his shoulder and
discovered the deception. Frenhofer is a man carried away by the
passion of his art; he sees above and beyond what other painters see.
He has meditated deeply on color and the absolute truth of lines; but
by dint of much research, much thought, much study, he has come to
doubt the object for which he is searching. In his hours of despair he
fancies that drawing does not exist, and that lines can render nothing
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