| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Land of Footprints by Stewart Edward White: thoroughly angry and came very fast. I had just enough time to
steady the gold bead on her chest and to pull trigger.
At the shot, to my great relief, she turned bottom up, and I saw
her tail for an instant above the grass-an almost sure
indication of a bad hit. She thrashed around, and made a
tremendous hullabaloo of snarls and growls. I backed out slowly,
my rifle ready. It was no place for me, for the grass was over
knee high.
Once at a safe distance I blazed a tree with my hunting knife and
departed for camp, well pleased to be out of it. At camp I ate
lunch and had a smoke; then with Memba Sasa and Mavrouki returned
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs: way to force me to marry you, without seeming to force me.
"You have never mentioned the loan. In any other man I
should have thought that the prompting of a magnanimous
and noble character. But you are deep, Mr. Robert Canler. I
know you better than you think I know you.
"I shall certainly marry you if there is no other way, but
let us understand each other once and for all."
While she spoke Robert Canler had alternately flushed and
paled, and when she ceased speaking he arose, and with a
cynical smile upon his strong face, said:
"You surprise me, Jane. I thought you had more self-control
Tarzan of the Apes |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Salome by Oscar Wilde: l'ange de la mort, et l'ange n'est-il pas venu?
SALOME. Laisse-moi baiser ta bouche.
IOKANAAN. Fille d'adultere, il n'y a qu'un homme qui puisse te
sauver. C'est celui dont je t'ai parle. Allez le chercher. Il est
dans un bateau sur la mer de Galilee, et il parle e ses disciples.
Agenouillez-vous au bord de la mer, et appelez-le par son nom.
Quand il viendra vers vous, et il vient vers tous ceux qui
l'appellent, prosternez-vous e ses pieds et demandez-lui la
remission de vos peches.
SALOME. Laisse-moi baiser ta bouche.
IOKANAAN. Soyez maudite, fille d'une mere incestueuse, soyez
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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 Timaeus by Plato: rarest, can only become a denser, and water, the densest, only a rarer:
but air may become a denser or a rarer. No single particle of the elements
is visible, but only the aggregates of them are seen. The subordinate
species depend, not upon differences of form in the original triangles, but
upon differences of size. The obvious physical phenomena from which Plato
has gathered his views of the relations of the elements seem to be the
effect of fire upon air, water, and earth, and the effect of water upon
earth. The particles are supposed by him to be in a perpetual process of
circulation caused by inequality. This process of circulation does not
admit of a vacuum, as he tells us in his strange account of respiration.
Of the phenomena of light and heavy he speaks afterwards, when treating of
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