| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard: for the little boat had ten souls on board in all, which was as
many as she could carry--the priest and I being the only men among
them. I have said that the darkness was falling, and as it chanced
happily for us, so was the sea, or assuredly we must have been
swamped. All that we could do was to keep the boat's head straight
to the waves, and this we did through the long night. It was a
strange thing to see, or rather to hear, that good man the priest
my companion, confessing the women one by one as he laboured at his
oar, and when all were shriven sending up prayers to God for the
salvation of our souls, for of the safety of our bodies we
despaired. What I felt may well be imagined, but I forbear to
Montezuma's Daughter |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg by Mark Twain: names.
"'You are far from being a bad man--' Signature, 'Robert J.
Titmarsh.'"
'"You are far from being a bad man--' Signature, 'Eliphalet Weeks.'"
"'You are far from being a bad man--' Signature, 'Oscar B. Wilder.'"
At this point the house lit upon the idea of taking the eight words
out of the Chairman's hands. He was not unthankful for that.
Thenceforward he held up each note in its turn and waited. The
house droned out the eight words in a massed and measured and
musical deep volume of sound (with a daringly close resemblance to a
well-known church chant)--"You are f-a-r from being a b-a-a-a-d
The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Lost Continent by Edgar Rice Burroughs: she buried her face upon my shoulder and sobbed. "I have
been so unhappy," she said, "but I could not die while I
thought that you might live."
As we stood there, momentarily forgetful of all else than
our new found happiness, the ferocity of the bombardment
increased until scarce thirty seconds elapsed between the
shells that rained about the palace.
To remain long would be to invite certain death. We could
not escape the way that we had entered the apartment, for
not only was the corridor now choked with debris, but beyond
the corridor there were doubtless many members of the
Lost Continent |
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 Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: and then, indeed, the three halberds they had were of use to them;
and they would often drive a whole little army before them with
those halberds, and sharpened sticks put into the muzzles of their
muskets. But for all this they were sometimes surrounded with
multitudes, and in great danger from their arrows, till at last
they found the way to make themselves large targets of wood, which
they covered with skins of wild beasts, whose names they knew not,
and these covered them from the arrows of the savages: that,
notwithstanding these, they were sometimes in great danger; and
five of them were once knocked down together with the clubs of the
savages, which was the time when one of them was taken prisoner -
Robinson Crusoe |
