| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard: had left the Tobascans that I saw Marina close, and heard her sweet
and gentle voice. For now as ever she was by the side of Cortes,
translating his proposals of peace to the Aztecs. Among those
proposals was one which showed me that de Garcia had not been idle.
It asked that the false white man who had been rescued from the
altars of the gods upon the teocalli should be given in exchange
for certain Aztec prisoners, in order that he might be hung
according to his merits as a spy and deserter, a traitor to the
emperor of Spain. I wondered as I heard, if Marina knew when she
spoke the words, that 'the false white man' was none other than the
friend of her Tobascan days.
Montezuma's Daughter |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte: pieces of toasted oat-cake; and his black, short pipe in his mouth.
Catherine ran to the hearth to warm herself. I asked if the master
was in? My question remained so long unanswered, that I thought
the old man had grown deaf, and repeated it louder.
'Na - ay!' he snarled, or rather screamed through his nose. 'Na -
ay! yah muh goa back whear yah coom frough.'
'Joseph!' cried a peevish voice, simultaneously with me, from the
inner room. 'How often am I to call you? There are only a few red
ashes now. Joseph! come this moment.'
Vigorous puffs, and a resolute stare into the grate, declared he
had no ear for this appeal. The housekeeper and Hareton were
Wuthering Heights |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates by Howard Pyle: was this pirate into whose hands he had fallen.
"Well," says the other, "and so you be up at last, and no great
harm done, I'll be bound. And how does your head feel by now, my
young master?"
To this Barnaby made no reply, but, what with wonder and the
dizziness of his head, seated himself at the table over against
the speaker, who pushed a bottle of rum toward him, together with
a glass from the swinging shelf above.
He watched Barnaby fill his glass, and so soon as he had done so
began immediately by saying: "I do suppose you think you were
treated mightily ill to be so handled last night. Well, so you
Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates |
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 The Red Inn by Honore de Balzac: possessing a few louis, an actual treasure in those days when
assignats were reaching their lowest depreciation and gold was worth
far more than silver. The two young surgeons, about twenty years of
age at the most, yielded themselves up to the poesy of their situation
with all the enthusiasm of youth. Between Strasburg and Bonn they had
visited the Electorate and the banks of the Rhine as artists,
philosophers, and observers. When a man's destiny is scientific he is,
at their age, a being who is truly many-sided. Even in making love or
in travelling, an assistant-surgeon should be gathering up the
rudiments of his fortune or his coming fame.
The two young had therefore given themselves wholly to that deep
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