| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Salome by Oscar Wilde: demander cela. Au fond, je ne crois pas que vous soyez serieuse.
La tete d'un homme decapitee, c'est une chose laide, n'est-ce pas?
Ce n'est pas une chose qu'une vierge doive regarder. Quel plaisir
cela pourrait-il vous donner? Aucun. Non, non, vous ne voulez pas
cela . . . Ecoutez-moi un instant. J'ai une emeraude, une grande
emeraude ronde que le favori de Cesar m'a envoyee. Si vous
regardiez e travers cette emeraude vous pourriez voir des choses qui
se passent e une distance immense. Cesar lui-meme en porte une tout
e fait pareille quand il va au cirque. Mais la mienne est plus
grande. Je sais bien qu'elle est plus grande. C'est la plus grande
emeraude du monde. N'est-ce pas que vous voulez cela? Demandez-moi
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Chessmen of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: detail his regalia was that demanded of a royal bridegroom by the
customs of Manator, and now in accordance with that same custom
he came alone to The Hall of Chiefs to receive the blessings and
the council of the great ones of Manator who had preceded him.
As the doors at the lower end of the Hall closed behind him O-Tar
the Jeddak stood alone with the great dead. By the dictates of
ages no mortal eye might look upon the scene enacted within that
sacred chamber. As the mighty of Manator respected the traditions
of Manator, let us, too, respect those traditions of a proud and
sensitive people. Of what concern to us the happenings in that
solemn chamber of the dead?
The Chessmen of Mars |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Twilight Land by Howard Pyle: gold, and preceded by dancing-girls as beautiful as houris, who
danced and sung before him. He was dizzy with joy. "All--all
this," he exulted, "belongs to me. And to think that if I had
listened to the Talisman of Solomon I would have had none of it."
That was the way he came back to the treasure of the ancient
kings of Egypt, and to the palace of enchantment that his father
had quitted.
For seven months he lived a life of joy and delight, surrounded
by crowds of courtiers as though they were a king, and going from
pleasure to pleasure without end. Nor had he any fear of an end
coming to it, for he knew that his treasure was inexhaustible. He
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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 First Men In The Moon by H. G. Wells: from our eyes. Our foiled attention then fell back upon the suggestion of
the various sounds we heard, and presently my eye caught a number of faint
shadows that played across the dim roof far overhead.
Indisputably there were several Selenites, perhaps a considerable number,
in this space, for we could hear the noises of their intercourse, and
faint sounds that I identified as their footfalls. There was also a
succession of regularly repeated sounds - chid, chid, chid - which began
and ceased, suggestive of a knife or spade hacking at some soft substance.
Then came a clank as if of chains, a whistle and a rumble as of a truck
running over a hollowed place, and then again that chid, chid, chid
resumed. The shadows told of shapes that moved quickly and rhythmically,
The First Men In The Moon |
