| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Mad King by Edgar Rice Burroughs: a few inches above his head. He had gained the last roof--
a large, level roof--and at the shot he turned to see how
near to him were his pursuers.
Fatal turn!
Scarce had he taken his eyes from the path ahead than
his foot fell upon a glass skylight, and with a loud crash he
plunged through amid a shower of broken glass.
His fall was a short one. Directly beneath the skylight
was a bed, and on the bed a fat Austrian infantry captain.
Barney lit upon the pit of the captain's stomach. With a
howl of pain the officer catapulted Barney to the floor. There
The Mad King |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates by Howard Pyle: "'Twould be like hunting for a pin in a haystack," said the Rev.
Hilary Jones.
As Tom walked away home, it seemed as though a ton's weight of
gloom had been rolled away from his soul. The next day he and
Parson Jones were to go treasure-hunting together; it seemed to
Tom as though he could hardly wait for the time to come.
V
The next afternoon Parson Jones and Tom Chist started off
together upon the expedition that made Tom's fortune forever. Tom
carried a spade over his shoulder and the reverend gentleman
walked along beside him with his cane.
Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Sarrasine by Honore de Balzac: "You can speak," I replied; "he hears with great difficulty."
"You know him, then?"
"Yes."
Thereupon she summoned courage to scrutinize for a moment that
creature for which no human language has a name, form without
substance, a being without life, or life without action. She was under
the spell of that timid curiosity which impels women to seek perilous
excitement, to gaze at chained tigers and boa-constrictors, shuddering
all the while because the barriers between them are so weak. Although
the little old man's back was bent like a day-laborer's, it was easy
to see that he must formerly have been of medium height. His excessive
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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 Heroes by Charles Kingsley: your guests go, in peace; that the world may say, "Alcinous
is a just king."'
But Alcinous frowned, and stood deep in thought; and at last
he spoke -
'Had not the deed been done which is done, I should have said
this day to myself, "It is an honour to Alcinous, and to his
children after him, that the far-famed Argonauts are his
guests." But these Colchi are my guests, as you are; and for
this month they have waited here with all their fleet, for
they have hunted all the seas of Hellas, and could not find
you, and dared neither go farther, nor go home.'
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