| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Mansion by Henry van Dyke: lost
their attraction. He paused for a moment before an idyll of
Corot--a dance
of nymphs around some forgotten altar in a vaporous glade--and
looked at
it curiously. There was something rapturous and serene about the
picture,
a breath of spring-time in the misty trees, a harmony of joy in
the dancing figures, that wakened in him a feeling of
half-pleasure
and half-envy. It represented something that he had never known
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Chessmen of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: a tree, and then your people caught me as I was trying to leave
the valley. I do not know why they took me. I was doing no harm.
All I ask is that you let me go my way in peace."
"None who enters Bantoom ever leaves," replied Luud.
"But my people are not at war with yours. I am a princess of
Helium; my great-grandfather is a jeddak; my grandfather a jed;
and my father is Warlord of all Barsoom. You have no right to
keep me and I demand that you liberate me at once."
"None who enters Bantoom ever leaves," repeated the creature
without expression. "I know nothing of the lesser creatures of
Barsoom, of whom you speak. There is but one high race--the race
The Chessmen of Mars |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: that it seems to amount to little more than letting them know the
name of Christ, and say some prayers to the Virgin Mary and her
Son, in a tongue which they understood not, and to cross
themselves, and the like; yet it must be confessed that the
religionists, whom we call missionaries, have a firm belief that
these people will be saved, and that they are the instruments of
it; and on this account they undergo not only the fatigue of the
voyage, and the hazards of living in such places, but oftentimes
death itself, and the most violent tortures, for the sake of this
work.
Father Simon was appointed, it seems, by order of the chief of the
Robinson Crusoe |
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 Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton: frock-coats before luncheon, and fight for food at the
wedding-breakfast.
"Too bad the breakfast is at old Catherine's," the
bridegroom could fancy Reggie Chivers saying. "But
I'm told that Lovell Mingott insisted on its being cooked
by his own chef, so it ought to be good if one can only
get at it." And he could imagine Sillerton Jackson
adding with authority: "My dear fellow, haven't you
heard? It's to be served at small tables, in the new
English fashion."
Archer's eyes lingered a moment on the left-hand
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