| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Beast in the Jungle by Henry James: speculation had others to keep it company. What could he have
done, after all, in her lifetime, without giving them both, as it
were, away? He couldn't have made known she was watching him, for
that would have published the superstition of the Beast. This was
what closed his mouth now--now that the Jungle had been thrashed to
vacancy and that the Beast had stolen away. It sounded too foolish
and too flat; the difference for him in this particular, the
extinction in his life of the element of suspense, was such as in
fact to surprise him. He could scarce have said what the effect
resembled; the abrupt cessation, the positive prohibition, of music
perhaps, more than anything else, in some place all adjusted and
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Princess of Parms by Edgar Rice Burroughs: horror of my position.
Shortly after this episode another prisoner was brought in
and chained near me. By the dim torch light I saw that he
was a red Martian and I could scarcely await the departure
of his guards to address him. As their retreating footsteps
died away in the distance, I called out softly the Martian
word of greeting, kaor.
"Who are you who speaks out of the darkness?" he answered
"John Carter, a friend of the red men of Helium."
"I am of Helium," he said, "but I do not recall your name."
And then I told him my story as I have written it here,
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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 The Country Doctor by Honore de Balzac: fortune for our part of the world. Very likely he may have a couple of
score thousand francs by now. But if I were to give you a thousand
guesses, you would never find out how he made the money. He is a
usurer, and his scheme of usury is so profoundly and so cleverly based
upon the requirements of the whole canton, that I should merely waste
my time if I were to take it upon myself to undeceive them as to the
benefits which they reap, in their own opinion, from their dealings
with Taboureau. When this devil of a fellow saw every one cultivating
his own plot of ground, he hurried about buying grain so as to supply
the poor with the requisite seed. Here, as everywhere else, the
peasants and even some of the farmers had no ready money with which to
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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 Merry Men by Robert Louis Stevenson: of the street, the stupid glare of plaster substituted for this
quiet pattern of greens and greys, the nerves shattered, the
digestion falsified - picture the fall! Already you perceive the
consequences; the mind is stimulated, the heart steps to a
different measure, and the man is himself no longer. I have
passionately studied myself - the true business of philosophy. I
know my character as the musician knows the ventages of his flute.
Should I return to Paris, I should ruin myself gambling; nay, I go
further - I should break the heart of my Anastasie with
infidelities.'
This was too much for Jean-Marie. That a place should so transform
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