| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: believing the place to be uninhabited, and know not yet what to
think of it." "Where are these brutes, your enemies?" said I; "do
you know where they are gone? There they lie, sir," said he,
pointing to a thicket of trees; "my heart trembles for fear they
have seen us and heard you speak; if they have, they will certainly
murder us all." "Have they any firearms?" said I. He answered,
"They had only two pieces, one of which they left in the boat."
"Well, then," said I, "leave the rest to me; I see they are all
asleep; it is an easy thing to kill them all; but shall we rather
take them prisoners?" He told me there were two desperate villains
among them that it was scarce safe to show any mercy to; but if
Robinson Crusoe |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Malbone: An Oldport Romance by Thomas Wentworth Higginson: or less stupid all the time.
To a man like Malbone, self-indulgent rather than selfish, this
poor, blind semblance of a moral purpose in Emilia was a great
embarrassment. It is a terrible thing for a lover when he
detects conscience amidst the armory of weapons used against
him, and faces the fact that he must blunt a woman's principles
to win her heart. Philip was rather accustomed to evade
conscience, but he never liked to look it in the face and defy
it.
Yet if the thought of Hope at this time came over him, it came
as a constraint, and he disliked it as such; and the more
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Travels with a Donkey in the Cevenne by Robert Louis Stevenson: and have no more ado with baskets; and half an hour afterwards I
set out for Le Cheylard l'Eveque, a place on the borders of the
forest of Mercoire. A man, I was told, should walk there in an
hour and a half; and I thought it scarce too ambitious to suppose
that a man encumbered with a donkey might cover the same distance
in four hours.
All the way up the long hill from Langogne it rained and hailed
alternately; the wind kept freshening steadily, although slowly;
plentiful hurrying clouds - some dragging veils of straight rain-
shower, others massed and luminous as though promising snow -
careered out of the north and followed me along my way. I was soon
|
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 Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar by Edgar Rice Burroughs: for you, too, hate them. In return I will take service
with you. I am a trained soldier. I can fight, and
your enemies are my enemies."
Achmet Zek eyed the European in silence. In his mind
he revolved many thoughts, chief among which was that
the unbeliever lied. Of course there was the chance
that he did not lie, and if he told the truth then his
proposition was one well worthy of consideration, since
fighting men were never over plentiful--especially
white men with the training and knowledge of military
matters that a European officer must possess.
Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar |
