| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Aeroplanes and Dirigibles of War by Frederick A. Talbot: from the fact that the machine of to-day is substantially
identical with that used seven years ago, the alterations which
have been effected meanwhile being merely modifications in minor
details.
The design of this machine follows very closely the lines of a
bird in flight--hence its colloquial description, "Taube," or
"dove." Indeed the analogy to the bird is so close that the ribs
of the frame resemble the feathers of a bird. The supporting
plane is shaped in the manner of a bird's distended wing, and is
tipped up at the rear ends to ensure stability. The tail also
resembles that of a bird very closely.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Old Indian Legends by Zitkala-Sa: his long fringed quiver. Together with his dangling pouches and
tinkling ornaments, he placed it on the ground. Now he climbed the
tree unhindered. Soon from the top he took the bird. "My friend,
toss to me your arrow that I may have the honor of wiping it clean
on soft deerskin!" exclaimed Iktomi.
"How!" said the brave, and threw the bird and arrow to the
ground.
At once Iktomi seized the arrow. Rubbing it first on the
grass and then on a piece of deerskin, he muttered indistinct words
all the while. The young man, stepping downward from limb to limb,
hearing the low muttering, said: "Iktomi, I cannot hear what you
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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 Mad King by Edgar Rice Burroughs: a number of rough pine boards. These he measured and
sawed, fitted and nailed, working all the balance of the
night. By dawn, he had a long, narrow box, just a trifle
smaller than the hole he had dug in the garden. The box
resembled a crude coffin. When it was quite finished, in-
cluding a cover, he dragged it out into the garden and set
it upon two boards that spanned the hole, so that it rested
precisely over the excavation.
All these precautions methodically made, he returned to
the castle. In a little storeroom he searched for and found an
ax. With his thumb he felt of the edge--for an ax it was
The Mad King |
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 My Aunt Margaret's Mirror by Walter Scott: her sister saw nothing in any of them, save what tended to
increase her grief for the absence of him whom her imagination
now represented--as it had before marriage--gallant, gay, and
affectionate.
About this period there appeared in Edinburgh a man of singular
appearance and pretensions. He was commonly called the Paduan
Doctor, from having received his education at that famous
university. He was supposed to possess some rare receipts in
medicine, with which, it was affirmed, he had wrought remarkable
cures. But though, on the one hand, the physicians of Edinburgh
termed him an empiric, there were many persons, and among them
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