| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Adventure by Jack London: Englishman performs some terrifically heroic exploit, and is very
modest and reserved--refuses to talk about it at all--and the
effect is that by his silence he as much as says, 'I do things like
this every day. It is as easy as rolling off a log. You ought to
see the really heroic things I could do if they ever came my way.
But this little thing, this little episode--really, don't you know,
I fail to see anything in it remarkable or unusual.' As for me, if
I went up in a powder explosion, or saved a hundred lives, I'd want
all my friends to hear about it, and their friends as well. I'd be
prouder than Lucifer over the affair. Confess, Mr. Sheldon, don't
you feel proud down inside when you've done something daring or
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Out of Time's Abyss by Edgar Rice Burroughs: "And the skulls with blue upon them?" inquired Bradley.
"Did they belong to murderers?"
"They were murdered--some of them; those with only a small amount
of blue were murderers--known murderers. All Wieroos are murderers.
When they have committed a certain number of murders without being
caught at it, they confess to Him Who Speaks for Luata and are
advanced, after which they wear robes with a slash of some color--
I think yellow comes first. When they reach a point where the
entire robe is of yellow, they discard it for a white robe with a
red slash; and when one wins a complete red robe, he carries such
a long, curved knife as you have in your hand; after that comes
Out of Time's Abyss |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Altar of the Dead by Henry James: time previous to the governorship of the Westward Islands, Acton
Hague had died, in the bleak honour of this exile, of an illness
consequent on the bite of a poisonous snake. His career was
compressed by the newspaper into a dozen lines, the perusal of
which excited on George Stransom's part no warmer feeling than one
of relief at the absence of any mention of their quarrel, an
incident accidentally tainted at the time, thanks to their joint
immersion in large affairs, with a horrible publicity. Public
indeed was the wrong Stransom had, to his own sense, suffered, the
insult he had blankly taken from the only man with whom he had ever
been intimate; the friend, almost adored, of his University years,
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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 A Lover's Complaint by William Shakespeare: As often shrieking undistinguish'd woe,
In clamours of all size, both high and low.
Sometimes her levell'd eyes their carriage ride;
As they did battery to the spheres intend;
Sometime diverted their poor balls are tied
To th' orbed earth; sometimes they do extend
Their view right on; anon their gazes lend
To every place at once, and nowhere fix'd,
The mind and sight distractedly commix'd.
Her hair, nor loose nor tied in formal plat,
Proclaim'd in her a careless hand of pride;
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