| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The War in the Air by H. G. Wells: in their colossal design.
Von Sternberg was the Moltke of this War in the Air, but it was
the curious hard romanticism of Prince Karl Albert that won over
the hesitating Emperor to the scheme. Prince Karl Albert was
indeed the central figure of the world drama. He was the
darling of the Imperialist spirit in German, and the ideal of the
new aristocratic feeling--the new Chivalry, as it was
called--that followed the overthrow of Socialism through its
internal divisions and lack of discipline, and the concentration
of wealth in the hands of a few great families. He was compared
by obsequious flatterers to the Black Prince, to Alcibiades, to
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard: tell my fears and weakness to your countrymen, and to show them the
joints in my harness? Do you then suppose that I do not know you
for a spy sent to this land by these same Teules to gather
knowledge of the land? Fool, I knew it from the first, and by
Huitzel! were you not vowed to Tezcat, your heart should smoke to-
morrow on the altar of Huitzel. Be warned, and give me no more
false counsels lest your end prove swifter than you think. Learn
that I have asked these questions of you to a purpose, and by the
command of the gods, as it was written on the hearts of those
sacrificed this day. This was the purpose and this was the
command, that I might discover your secret mind, and that I should
Montezuma's Daughter |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: were speeding in long, swift dives to the ground about us.
In another instant we were surrounded by armed sailors,
and an officer had stepped forward to address us, when his
eyes fell upon Carthoris. With an exclamation of surprised
pleasure he sprang forward, and, placing his hands upon
the boy's shoulder, called him by name.
"Carthoris, my Prince," he cried, "Kaor! Kaor! Hor Vastus
greets the son of Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium, and of her
husband, John Carter. Where have you been, O my Prince?
All Helium has been plunged in sorrow. Terrible have been the
calamities that have befallen your great-grandsire's mighty
The Gods 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 Herbert West: Reanimator by H. P. Lovecraft: coupled with a desire to prove his theories to these obtuse worthies
in some striking and dramatic fashion. Like most youths, he indulged
in elaborate daydreams of revenge, triumph, and final magnanimous
forgiveness.
And then had come the scourge, grinning and lethal,
from the nightmare caverns of Tartarus. West and I had graduated
about the time of its beginning, but had remained for additional
work at the summer school, so that we were in Arkham when it broke
with full daemoniac fury upon the town. Though not as yet licenced
physicians, we now had our degrees, and were pressed frantically
into public service as the numbers of the stricken grew. The situation
Herbert West: Reanimator |
