| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne: "Why that enormous meteor which we met."
"Then," said Nicholl, "the projectile would have been broken
into a thousand pieces, and we with it."
"More than that," replied Barbicane; "we should have been burned
to death."
"Burned?" exclaimed Michel, "by Jove! I am sorry it did not
happen, `just to see.'"
"And you would have seen," replied Barbicane. "It is known now
that heat is only a modification of motion. When water is
warmed-- that is to say, when heat is added to it--its particles
are set in motion."
From the Earth to the Moon |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Master of the World by Jules Verne: my brave Nisko at the farm, I have my gun. Game will be plentiful in
the woods and gorges of the lower part of the mountain, and perhaps
at the top we shall find a fire to cook it, already lighted."
"Already lighted, Mr. Smith?"
"And why not, Mr. Strock? These flames! These superb flames, which
have so terrified our country folk! Is their fire absolutely cold, is
no spark to be found beneath their ashes? And then, if this is truly
a crater, is the volcano so wholly extinct that we cannot find there
a single ember? Bah! This would be but a poor volcano if it hasn't
enough fire even to cook an egg or roast a potato. Come, I repeat, we
shall see! We shall see!"
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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 Collection of Antiquities by Honore de Balzac: short, for the boy to win his spurs. My uncle the Archbishop suffered
a cruel martyrdom; I have fought for the cause without deserting the
camp with those who thought it their duty to follow the Princes. I
held that while the King was in France, his nobles should rally round
him.--Ah! well, no one gives us a thought; a Henry IV. would have
written before now to the d'Esgrignons, 'Come to me, my friends; we
have won the day!'--After all, we are something better than the
Troisvilles, yet here are two Troisvilles made peers of France; and
another, I hear, represents the nobles in the Chamber." (He took the
upper electoral colleges for assemblies of his own order.) "Really,
they think no more of us than if we did not exist. I was waiting for
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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 The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf: at a railway station?"
She whipped a plush cover off a table. The appearance of the place
was marvellously improved.
Again, the arrival of the strangers made it obvious to Rachel,
as the hour of dinner approached, that she must change her dress;
and the ringing of the great bell found her sitting on the edge of her
berth in such a position that the little glass above the washstand
reflected her head and shoulders. In the glass she wore an expression
of tense melancholy, for she had come to the depressing conclusion,
since the arrival of the Dalloways, that her face was not the face
she wanted, and in all probability never would be.
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