| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar by Edgar Rice Burroughs: upon her startled ears the sound of a rifle shot not
far ahead of her. As she paused to listen, this first
shot was followed by another and another and another.
What could it mean? The first explanation which sprung
to her mind attributed the firing to an encounter
between the Arab raiders and a party of Waziri; but as
she did not know upon which side victory might rest, or
whether she were behind friend or foe, she dared not
advance nearer on the chance of revealing herself to an
enemy.
After listening for several minutes she became
Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Red Seal by Natalie Sumner Lincoln: Kent thought rapidly. "Have you told any one of this?" he asked.
Grimes nodded. "Only one person," he admitted." I spoke to Miss
Barbara last night as she was going to bed." Grimes laid a hot
hand on Kent's and glanced fearfully around the room. "Bend nearer,
sir; I don't want none other to hear me. Just before I got that
knockout blow in the library last night, I heard the swish o' skirts
- and Miss Barbara was the only living person who knew I knew about
the poison."
Kent stared in stupefaction at the butler. He was aroused by a
cold voice from the doorway.
"We are waiting for you, Kent," and Colonel McIntyre stood aside
The Red Seal |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Twice Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne: it among his crown jewels. If any of ye have a wiser plan, let
him expound it."
"That have I, thou sordid man!" exclaimed the poet. "Dost thou
desire nothing brighter than gold that thou wouldst transmute all
this ethereal lustre into such dross as thou wallowest in
already? For myself, hiding the jewel under my cloak, I shall hie
me back to my attic chamber, in one of the darksome alleys of
London. There, night and day, will I gaze upon it; my soul shall
drink its radiance; it shall be diffused throughout my
intellectual powers, and gleam brightly in every line of poesy
that I indite. Thus, long ages after I am gone, the splendor of
Twice Told Tales |
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 Apology by Xenophon: went so far as to say that to propose a counter-penalty was like a
confession of guilt. And afterwards, when his companions wished to
steal him out of prison,[43] he would not follow their lead, but would
seem to have treated the idea as a jest, by asking "whether they
happened to know of some place outside Attica where death was
forbidden to set foot?"
[40] {sunagoreuein}, L. and S. cf Thuc. vi. 6, "partisans," viii. 84,
"pleaded the case of" (Jowett).
[41] Or, "laid the greatest stress of not being guilty of impiety";
"attached the greatest importance to the fact that he was never
guilty of impiety."
The Apology |
