| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Enoch Arden, &c. by Alfred Tennyson: His gazing in on Annie, his resolve,
And how he kept it. As the woman heard,
Fast flow'd the current of her easy tears,
While in her heart she yearn'd incessantly
To rush abroad all round the little haven,
Proclaiming Enoch Arden and his woes;
But awed and promise-bounded she forbore,
Saying only `See your bairns before you go!
Eh, let me fetch 'em, Arden,' and arose
Eager to bring them down, for Enoch hung
A moment on her words, but then replied.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin by Robert Louis Stevenson: Sussex regiment. The subsequent correction, if it came in time,
was prudently withheld from the dying man. An hour before midnight
on the fifth of February, he passed away: aged eighty-four.
Word of his death was kept from Mrs. Jenkin; and she survived him
no more than nine and forty hours. On the day before her death,
she received a letter from her old friend Miss Bell of Manchester,
knew the hand, kissed the envelope, and laid it on her heart; so
that she too died upon a pleasure. Half an hour after midnight, on
the eighth of February, she fell asleep: it is supposed in her
seventy-eighth year.
Thus, in the space of less than ten months, the four seniors of
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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 The Elixir of Life by Honore de Balzac: something like shame that he must be brought thus to his father's
bedside, wearing a courtesan's bouquet, redolent of the fragrance
of the banqueting-chamber and the fumes of wine.
"You were enjoying yourself!" the old man cried as he saw his
son.
Even as he spoke the pure high notes of a woman's voice,
sustained by the sound of the viol on which she accompanied her
song, rose above the rattle of the storm against the casements,
and floated up to the chamber of death. Don Juan stopped his ears
against the barbarous answer to his father's speech.
"I bear you no grudge, my child," Bartolommeo went on.
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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 Pellucidar by Edgar Rice Burroughs: rebel, though I had with me the means to destroy them
all. I did not dare rebel because of the consequences to
Dian. I intended demanding her release on the grounds
that she was in no way guilty of the theft, and that
my failure to recover the document had not lessened the
value of the good faith I had had in offering to do so.
The Mahars might keep me in slavery if they chose, but
Dian should be returned safely to her people.
I was full of my scheme when we entered Phutra and
I was conducted directly to the great audience-chamber.
The Mahars listened to the report of the Sagoth chief-
Pellucidar |
