| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Tapestried Chamber by Walter Scott: The date of the following story is about the latter years of
Queen Elizabeth's reign; and the events took place in Liddesdale,
a hilly and pastoral district of Roxburghshire, which, on a part
of its boundary, is divided from England only by a small river.
During the good old times of RUGGING AND RIVING--that is, tugging
and tearing--under which term the disorderly doings of the
warlike age are affectionately remembered, this valley was
principally cultivated by the sept or clan of the Armstrongs.
The chief of this warlike race was the Laird of Mangerton. At
the period of which I speak, the estate of Mangerton, with the
power and dignity of chief, was possessed by John Armstrong, a
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard: have yet, and it was a stone of it--the smallest save one--that I
gave to our gracious Queen Elizabeth. Otomie wore it for many
years, and for this reason it shall be buried with me, though its
value is priceless, so say those who are skilled in gems. But
priceless or no, it is doomed to lie in the mould of Ditchingham
churchyard, and may that same curse which is graved upon the stone
that hides the treasure of the Aztecs fall upon him who steals it
from my bones.
Now, leaving the chamber, we three entered the tunnel and began the
work of building the adobe wall. When it was of a height of
between two and three feet, Guatemoc paused from his labour and
Montezuma's Daughter |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Polly of the Circus by Margaret Mayo: Toby!" she cried. "You must!"
It was only when body and mind had worn themselves out with
yearning, that a numbness at last crept over her, and out of this
grew a gradual consciousness of things about her and a returning
sense of her obligation to others. She tried to answer in her
old, smiling way and to keep her mind upon what they were saying,
instead of letting it wander away to the past.
Douglas and Mandy were overjoyed to see the colour creeping back
to her cheeks.
She joined the pastor again in his visits to the poor. The women
of the town would often see them passing and would either whisper
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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 Out of Time's Abyss by Edgar Rice Burroughs: No premonition of impending ill cast gloom over his anticipations
for the coming day, for Bradley was a man who, while taking every
precaution against possible danger, permitted no gloomy
forebodings to weigh down his spirit. When danger threatened, he
was prepared; but he was not forever courting disaster, and so it
was that when about one o'clock in the morning of the fifteenth,
he heard the dismal flapping of giant wings overhead, he was
neither surprised nor frightened but idly prepared for an attack
he had known might reasonably be expected.
The sound seemed to come from the south, and presently, low above
the trees in that direction, the man made out a dim, shadowy form
Out of Time's Abyss |
