| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Warlord of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: in the huge beast's wake. Through Cimmerian darkness he moved
along the narrow ledge beside the boiling rapids.
As we advanced, the way led from beneath the overhanging
cliffs out into a dim light, and then it was that I saw that the
trail had been cut from the living rock, and that it ran up along
the river's side beyond the rapids.
For hours we followed the dark and gloomy river farther and
farther into the bowels of Mars. From the direction and
distance I knew that we must be well beneath the Valley Dor,
The Warlord of Mars |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Blix by Frank Norris:
"I WISH you could get off the 'Times,'" said Blix. "You're just
giving the best part of your life to hack work, and NOW it's
interfering with your novel. I know you could do better work on
your novel if you didn't have to work on the 'Times,' couldn't
you?"
"Oh, if you come to that, of course I could," he answered. "But
they won't give me a vacation. I was sounding the editor on it
day before yesterday. No; I'll have to manage somehow to swing
the two together."
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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 Soul of a Bishop by H. G. Wells: Athens. 'Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto
you.' That comes to me with an effect of--guidance is an
old-fashioned word--shall I say suggestion? To stand by the
altar bearing strange names and ancient symbols, speaking plainly
to all mankind of the one true God--!"
(4)
He did not get much beyond this point at the time, though he
remained talking with Lady Sunderbund for nearly an hour longer.
The rest was merely a beating out of what had already been said.
But insensibly she renewed her original charm, and as he became
accustomed to her he forgot a certain artificiality in her manner
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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 The Alkahest by Honore de Balzac: through long periods of time had accumulated these treasures. One
generation followed the quest of noble pictures, leaving behind it the
necessity of completing a collection still unfinished; and thus the
taste became hereditary in the family. The hundred pictures which
adorned the gallery leading from the family building to the reception-
rooms on the first floor of the front house, as well as some fifty
others placed about the salons, were the product of the patient
researches of three centuries. Among them were choice specimens of
Rubens, Ruysdael, Vandyke, Terburg, Gerard Dow, Teniers, Mieris, Paul
Potter, Wouvermans, Rembrandt, Hobbema, Cranach, and Holbein. French
and Italian pictures were in a minority, but all were authentic and
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