| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Pellucidar by Edgar Rice Burroughs: a great island. This I assumed to be the stronghold of
Hooja, nor did I doubt that upon it even now was Dian.
The way was most difficult, since shortly after leaving
the river I encountered lofty cliffs split by numerous
long, narrow fiords, each of which necessitated a con-
siderable detour. As the crow flies it is about twenty
miles from the mouth of the river to Thuria, but be-
fore I had covered half of it I was fagged. There was no
familiar fruit or vegetable growing upon the rocky soil of
the cliff-tops, and I would have fared ill for food had
not a hare broken cover almost beneath my nose.
Pellucidar |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Hidden Masterpiece by Honore de Balzac: The figure presented such fulness and force of reality that Nicolas
Poussin began to comprehend the meaning of the bewildering talk of the
old man. The latter looked at the picture with a satisfied but not
enthusiastic manner, which seemed to say, "I have done better myself."
"There is life in the form," he remarked. "My poor master surpassed
himself there; but observe the want of truth in the background. The
man is living, certainly; he rises and is coming towards us; but the
atmosphere, the sky, the air that we breathe, see, feel,--where are
they? Besides, that is only a man; and the being who came first from
the hand of God must needs have had something divine about him which
is lacking here. Mabuse said so himself with vexation in his sober
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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 At the Sign of the Cat & Racket by Honore de Balzac: marry before Virginie.--Your interest will be ten per cent."
The young man, to whom love gave I know not what power of courage and
eloquence, clasped his hand, and spoke in his turn--spoke for a
quarter of an hour, with so much warmth and feeling, that he altered
the situation. If the question had been a matter of business the old
tradesman would have had fixed principles to guide his decision; but,
tossed a thousand miles from commerce, on the ocean of sentiment,
without a compass, he floated, as he told himself, undecided in the
face of such an unexpected event. Carried away by his fatherly
kindness, he began to beat about the bush.
"Deuce take it, Joseph, you must know that there are ten years between
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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 Off on a Comet by Jules Verne: but it became generally noticed that something was very seriously
disturbing the professor's equanimity. Not only would he be seen
toiling more frequently up the arduous way that lay between his nook
below and his telescope above, but he would be heard muttering
in an angry tone that indicated considerable agitation.
One day, as he was hurrying down to his study, he met Ben Zoof, who,
secretly entertaining a feeling of delight at the professor's manifest
discomfiture, made some casual remark about things not being very straight.
The way in which his advance was received the good orderly never divulged,
but henceforward he maintained the firm conviction that there was something
very much amiss up in the sky.
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