| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Master of the World by Jules Verne: streams that rushed downward toward the Catawba River.
The smaller birds and beasts grew yet more numerous. "I am much
tempted to take my gun," said Mr. Smith, "and to go off with Nisko.
This will be the first time that I have passed here without trying my
luck with the partridges and hares. The good beasts will not
recognize me. But not only have we plenty of provisions, but we have
a bigger chase on hand today. The chase of a mystery."
"And let us hope," added I, "we do not come back disappointed
hunters."
In the afternoon the whole chain of the Blueridge stretched before us
at a distance of only six miles. The mountain crests were sharply
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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 Moby Dick by Herman Melville: large herd of whales in the east, all heading towards the sun, and
for a moment vibrating in concert with peaked flukes. As it seemed
to me at the time, such a grand embodiment of adoration of the gods
was never beheld, even in Persia, the home of the fire worshippers.
As Ptolemy Philopater testified of the African elephant, I then
testified of the whale, pronouncing him the most devout of all
beings. For according to King Juba, the military elephants of
antiquity often hailed the morning with their trunks uplifted in the
profoundest silence.
The chance comparison in this chapter, between the whale and the
elephant, so far as some aspects of the tail of the one and the trunk
 Moby Dick |