| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay: grim and rocklike features were revealed.
"I can't face rebirth," said Nightspore. "The horror of death is
nothing to it."
"You will choose."
"I can do nothing. Crystalman is too powerful. I barely escaped with
- my own soul."
"You are still stupid with Earth fumes, and see nothing straight,"
said Krag.
Nightspore made no reply, but seemed to be trying to recall
something. The water around them was so still, colourless, and
transparent, that they scarcely seemed to be borne up by liquid
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Divine Comedy (translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) by Dante Alighieri: By some one I was recognised, who seized
My garment's hem, and cried out, "What a marvel!"
And I, when he stretched forth his arm to me,
On his baked aspect fastened so mine eyes,
That the scorched countenance prevented not
His recognition by my intellect;
And bowing down my face unto his own,
I made reply, "Are you here, Ser Brunetto?"
And he: "May't not displease thee, O my son,
If a brief space with thee Brunetto Latini
Backward return and let the trail go on."
The Divine Comedy (translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Gentle Grafter by O. Henry: Uncle Tom shuffles into the hotel and asked for the doctor to come and
see Judge Banks, who, it seems, was the mayor and a mighty sick man.
"'I'm no doctor,' says I. 'Why don't you go and get the doctor?'
"'Boss,' says he. 'Doc Hoskins am done gone twenty miles in de country
to see some sick persons. He's de only doctor in de town, and Massa
Banks am powerful bad off. He sent me to ax you to please, suh, come.'
"'As man to man,' says I, 'I'll go and look him over.' So I put a
bottle of Resurrection Bitters in my pocket and goes up on the hill to
the mayor's mansion, the finest house in town, with a mannered roof
and two cast iron dogs on the lawn.
"This Mayor Banks was in bed all but his whiskers and feet. He was
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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 On Revenues by Xenophon: respectability of the applicant, if I am not mistaken, the result of
such a measure will be that a larger number of persons, and of a
better class, will be attracted to Athens as a place of residence.
[9] Or, "offer the fee simple of such property to."
Lastly, if we could bring ourselves to appoint, as a new government
office, a board of guardians of foreign residents like our Guardians
of Orphans,[10] with special privileges assigned to those guardians
who should show on their books the greatest number of resident aliens
--such a measure would tend to improve the goodwill of the class in
question, and in all probability all people without a city of their
own would aspire to the status of foreign residents in Athens, and so
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