| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The People That Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs: She explained that with my rifle and pistol--both of which
she assured me she could use, having watched me so many
times--she planned upon frightening the Band-lu and forcing
them to give me up. Brave little girl! She would have risked
her life willingly to save me. But some time after she reached
our cave she heard voices from the far recesses within, and
immediately concluded that we had but found another entrance
to the caves which the Band-lu occupied upon the other face of
the cliff. Then she had set out through those winding passages
and in total darkness had groped her way, guided solely by a
marvelous sense of direction, to where I lay. She had had to
The People That Time Forgot |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay: and dust, swept past the cave entrance from above. If their going in
had been delayed by a single minute, they would have been killed.
Tydomin did not even look up. She took his hand in hers, and started
walking with him into the darkness. The temperature became as cold
as ice. At the first bend the light from the outer world
disappeared, leaving them in absolute blackness. Maskull kept
stumbling over the uneven ground, but she kept tight hold of him, and
hurried him along.
The tunnel seemed of interminable length. Presently, however, the
atmosphere changed - or such was his impression. He was somehow led
to imagine that they had come to a larger chamber. Here Tydomin
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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 In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield: the window. The dining-room looked over the breakwater of the harbour, and
the sea swung heavily in rolling waves. Wind crept round the house,
moaning drearily.
"We're in for a storm. That means I'm boxed up here all day. Well,
there's one blessing; it'll clear the air." He heard the servant girl
rushing importantly round the house, slamming windows. Then he caught a
glimpse of her in the garden, unpegging tea towels from the line across the
lawn. She was a worker, there was no doubt about that. He took up a book,
and wheeled his arm-chair over to the window. But it was useless. Too
dark to read; he didn't believe in straining his eyes, and gas at ten
o'clock in the morning seemed absurd. So he slipped down in the chair,
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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 Life in the Iron-Mills by Rebecca Davis: over the furnace with his iron pole, unconscious of her
scrutiny, only stopping to receive orders. Physically, Nature
had promised the man but little. He had already lost the
strength and instinct vigor of a man, his muscles were thin, his
nerves weak, his face ( a meek, woman's face) haggard, yellow
with consumption. In the mill he was known as one of the girl-
men: "Molly Wolfe" was his sobriquet. He was never seen in the
cockpit, did not own a terrier, drank but seldom; when he did,
desperately. He fought sometimes, but was always thrashed,
pommelled to a jelly. The man was game enough, when his blood
was up: but he was no favorite in the mill; he had the taint of
Life in the Iron-Mills |
