| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Enchanted Island of Yew by L. Frank Baum: him were lords and ladies in gorgeous array; the walls were hung with
rare embroideries; the table was weighted with gold platters and
richly carved goblets filled with sweet nectars. But the king
himself, with his horrid, ugly head, was like a great blot on a fair
parchment, and even Prince Marvel could not repress a shudder as he
gazed upon him.
Terribus placed his guest upon his right hand and loaded him with
honors. Nerle stood behind the prince's chair and served him
faithfully, as an esquire should. But the other servants treated
Nerle with much deference, noting in him an air of breeding that
marked him the unusual servant of an unusual master.
The Enchanted Island of Yew |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The American by Henry James: "I will wait upon you at your hotel."
"Oh yes, I should like to learn French," Newman went on,
with democratic confidingness. "Hang me if I should ever
have thought of it! I took for granted it was impossible.
But if you learned my language, why shouldn't I learn yours?"
and his frank, friendly laugh drew the sting from the jest.
"Only, if we are going to converse, you know, you must think
of something cheerful to converse about."
"You are very good, sir; I am overcome!" said M. Nioche, throwing out
his hands. "But you have cheerfulness and happiness for two!"
"Oh no," said Newman more seriously. "You must be bright and lively;
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Droll Stories, V. 1 by Honore de Balzac: rolling quietly up against the garden where were the crowns of the
Lombard. Then Cochegrue, making a ladder of Chiquon's broad shoulders,
jumped on to the pear-tree like a man expert in attacks upon towns,
but Versoris, who was watching him, made a blow at his neck, and
repeated it so vigorously that with three blows fell the upper portion
of the said Cochegrue, but not until he had heard the clear voice of
the shepherd, who cried to him, "Pick up your head, my friend."
Thereupon the generous Chiquon, in whom virtue received its
recompense, thought it would be wise to return to the house of the
good canon, whose heritage was by the grace of God considerably
simplified. Thus he gained the Rue St. Pierre-Aux-Boeufs with all
Droll Stories, V. 1 |
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 Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. Wells: type of mankind in that seafaring village of Spanish mongrels.
The men aboard-ship, he told me, seemed at first just as strange
to him as the Beast Men seemed to me,--unnaturally long in the leg,
flat in the face, prominent in the forehead, suspicious, dangerous,
and cold-hearted. In fact, he did not like men: his heart
had warmed to me, he thought, because he had saved my life.
I fancied even then that he had a sneaking kindness for some of these
metamorphosed brutes, a vicious sympathy with some of their ways,
but that he attempted to veil it from me at first.
M'ling, the black-faced man, Montgomery's attendant, the first of
the Beast Folk I had encountered, did not live with the others across
The Island of Doctor Moreau |
