| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Thuvia, Maid of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: pride of the three rulers and former friends could no
longer endure the humiliations and insults contained
in these falsified papers--not any of this he knew.
Nor did he know how even to the last John Carter,
Warlord of Mars, had refused to permit the jeddak of
Helium to declare war against either Ptarth or Kaol,
because of his implicit belief in his son, and that
eventually all would be satisfactorily explained.
And now two great fleets were moving upon Helium, while
the Dusarian spies at the court of Tardos Mors saw to it
that the twin cities remained in ignorance of their danger.
Thuvia, Maid of Mars |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Middlemarch by George Eliot: is a peculiar occasion--the country with a will of its own--
political unions--that sort of thing--but we sometimes cut with rather
too sharp a knife, Ladislaw. These ten-pound householders, now:
why ten? Draw the line somewhere--yes: but why just at ten?
That's a difficult question, now, if you go into it."
"Of course it is," said Will, impatiently. "But if you are to wait
till we get a logical Bill, you must put yourself forward as
a revolutionist, and then Middlemarch would not elect you, I fancy.
As for trimming, this is not a time for trimming."
Mr. Brooke always ended by agreeing with Ladislaw, who still
appeared to him a sort of Burke with a leaven of Shelley; but after
Middlemarch |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Road to Oz by L. Frank Baum: golden shags around the edges. His vest was a shaggy satin of a
delicate cream color, and his knee-breeches of rose velvet trimmed
like the coat. Shaggy creamy stockings of silk, and shaggy slippers of
rose leather with ruby buckles, completed his costume, and when he was
thus attired the shaggy man looked at himself in a long mirror with
great admiration. On a table he found a mother-of-pearl chest
decorated with delicate silver vines and flowers of clustered rubies,
and on the cover was a silver plate engraved with these words:
THE SHAGGY MAN:
HIS BOX OF ORNAMENTS
The chest was not locked, so he opened it and was almost dazzled by
The Road to Oz |
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 Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe: and heard nothing, but that, being recovered, he was gone into
the country for the air, and for the better recovery after his
distemper. After this it was yet two months more, and then I
understood he was come to his city house again, but still I
heard nothing from him.
I had written several letters for him, and directed them as
usual, and found two or three of them had been called for, but
not the rest. I wrote again in a more pressing manner than
ever, and in one of them let him know, that I must be forced
to wait on him myself, representing my circumstances, the rent
of lodgings to pay, and the provision for the child wanting, and
Moll Flanders |
