| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin: much affected by the earthquake of 1835; the temperature
being suddenly changed from 118 to 92 degs. [1] It seems probable
that mineral waters rising deep from the bowels of the earth,
would always be more deranged by subterranean disturbances
than those nearer the surface. The man who had charge of
the baths assured me that in summer the water is hotter and
more plentiful than in winter. The former circumstance I
should have expected, from the less mixture, during the dry
season, of cold water; but the latter statement appears very
strange and contradictory. The periodical increase during
the summer, when rain never falls, can, I think, only be
The Voyage of the Beagle |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Jolly Corner by Henry James: the bared identity was too hideous as HIS, and his glare was the
passion of his protest. The face, THAT face, Spencer Brydon's? -
he searched it still, but looking away from it in dismay and
denial, falling straight from his height of sublimity. It was
unknown, inconceivable, awful, disconnected from any possibility! -
He had been "sold," he inwardly moaned, stalking such game as this:
the presence before him was a presence, the horror within him a
horror, but the waste of his nights had been only grotesque and the
success of his adventure an irony. Such an identity fitted his at
NO point, made its alternative monstrous. A thousand times yes, as
it came upon him nearer now, the face was the face of a stranger.
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Purse by Honore de Balzac: odor of ether, applied no doubt to revive him from his fainting
fit. Finally he saw an old woman, looking like a marquise of the
old school, who held the lamp and was advising the young girl.
"Monsieur," said the younger woman in reply to one of the
questions put by the painter during the few minutes when he was
still under the influence of the vagueness that the shock had
produced in his ideas, "my mother and I heard the noise of your
fall on the floor, and we fancied we heard a groan. The silence
following on the crash alarmed us, and we hurried up. Finding the
key in the latch, we happily took the liberty of entering, and we
found you lying motionless on the ground. My mother went to fetch
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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 At the Earth's Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs: no fixed habits of sleep. Why, I am sure that some of the
Mahars never sleep, while others may, at long intervals,
crawl into the dark recesses beneath their dwellings and
curl up in protracted slumber. Perry says that if a Mahar
stays awake for three years he will make up all his lost
sleep in a long year's snooze. That may be all true, but I
never saw but three of them asleep, and it was the sight
of these three that gave me a suggestion for our means of escape.
I had been searching about far below the levels that we
slaves were supposed to frequent--possibly fifty feet
beneath the main floor of the building--among a network
At the Earth's Core |
